Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110

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Ireland losing almost 1,000 jobs a week and services industry hardest hit

The latest employment figures show that 24,892 jobs were lost in Ireland in the first six months of this year and the services industry has been hardest hit with 10,929 redundancies to date.

Patricia Callan, Director if the Small Firms Association, has issued a statement saying:

"Despite an annual drop in the number of redundancies by 30% year on year, the fact that 24,892 people have lost their livelihoods in the first six months of the year is completely unacceptable. The main reason that people lose jobs is because businesses are cost-cutting in order to survive or have actually gone out of business because of cost-competitiveness issues. In order to solve the jobs crisis, addressing these cost-competitiveness issues must become the Government's top priority.

"Ireland cannot afford to keep losing an average of 957 jobs a week in 2011. It is now time for us to get real and accept the new world order, in which we have become an uncompetitive, high cost, small open economy trading in very turbulent international waters. What we need is strong leadership from all sectors of the community, to continue to grow our indigenous companies, and trade our way out of this recession.

"By focusing on the factors that are within our control domestically such as tackling the high cost of doing business here, including labour costs, energy & waste costs, local authority charges and regulatory burden, we can make ourselves fit for purpose once more."

T: 01 605 1602
E: [email protected]
W: www.sfa.ie

14th July 2011