Number of redundancies doubles in seven years

REDUNDANCY is increasingly becoming an everyday experience in Ireland with the manufacturing sector bearing the brunt of the losses.

Seven years ago, 10,800 people were made redundant but this figure increased to 23,684 last year — a rise of 120%.

Although the numbers of people in work rose from 1.7 million to 2 million during the same period — 2000 to 2006 — the numbers in manufacturing fell more than 32,000.

The National Competitiveness Council (NCC) said shifts in the economy could explain why the country was losing manufacturing jobs like those at Procter & Gamble in Nenagh.

Since 2002, the country’s share of world trade has declined. The NCC said Ireland has become more focussed on consumption of goods and services instead of exporting.

In the five years to March 2006, manufacturing industries lost over 32,000 jobs, and the sector was overtaken by the construction industry as the country’s largest employer.

Demand for labour, land and finance in Ireland has grown so high that manufacturers with price-sensitive customers are unable to pay the same rates as the booming construction industry or the growing public sector.

“In this environment of rapidly escalating costs, many exporting companies in Ireland do not have the breathing space to adapt to the more competitive environment,” noted the NCC’s annual competitiveness report in 2006.

Over-reliance on the construction and property boom could spell trouble in the future as the new boom sectors did little to improve competitiveness or productivity of industry overall, the NCC claimed.

Separate figures from the Forfás annual employment survey out yesterday showed the State was struggling to keep pace with the waves of redundancies.

Despite a booming economy, Forfás figures show a drop in the number of jobs at firms getting State incentives to do business in Ireland.

Such businesses, which include the Procter and Gamble Nenagh cosmetics plant, employed 312,951 people in 2001 compared to 305,062 last year.

In the Mid-West and South-West regions these firms employed 77,463 in 2001 but last year the number was 75,754, a fall despite rising numbers of people at work nationally.

Figures for the whole country show State agencies like the IDA and Enterprise Ireland last year helped to create 2,953 fewer jobs in 2006 than in 2001.

Between 1997 and 2006 the numbers of jobs created annually with State help rose as high as 44,458 in 2000 but last year fell to 27,017.

At the same time job losses in these firms peaked at 35,658 in 2002 but the rate was still running at 21,090 last year.

When the jobs figures are divided up into types of firm they show how 11 of 16 sectors recorded jobs losses between 2001 and last year.

Food, textiles, plastics, metals, electrical and transport all saw falls between 2001 and 2006 in the numbers of jobs.

The sectors which saw employment increases included chemicals and financial services and other international services.