25,000 lose jobs as workforce soars

MORE than 2,000 people were made redundant every month last year, yet the overall numbers in work reached their highest levels in the history of the State.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment yesterday revealed 15,632 men and 9,827 women lost their jobs in 2007, making a total of 25,459.

And a survey carried out by recruitment firm Berkley revealed workers still have confidence in the economy with 62% reckoning they will get a pay rise in line with inflation at 5% or a hike of as much as 8%.

Three-quarters of the 1,050 adults surveyed believed the economy would slow down in 2008 but did not foresee any problems caused by such a reduction in the rate of Ireland’s booming growth.

And just one in five adults was despondent about the jobs market in 2008 while the same number believed their employer’s business would remain healthy.

The figures on employment showed more than two million people were in jobs last year, the highest in the history of the State.

The highest number of redundancies was recorded in Dublin where 10,844 jobs were axed.

In Cork, 2,707 redundancies were made, with 1,250 in Limerick, 1,172 in Galway and 1,147 in Kildare.

The highest losses overall were in the building and civil engineering, which saw 3,445 workers made redundant.