Job cuts confirm Munster’s unemployment blackspot status

THE Schering-Plough crisis is just the latest in a growing series of job losses and “restructuring” moves involving Cork and Munster-based companies which have turned the region into one of the worst unemployment blackspots in the country.

Since the end of the Celtic Tiger, a series of electronics companies, pharmaceutical firms and other businesses have told thousands of employees to join the dole queues, further bloating the live register.

In May, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced it was “restructuring” its Irish operations, resulting in 785 job cuts – 300 of which were at its Loughbeg and Shanbally plants in Cork.