Careers and Jobs

Cork and Tullamore suffered sever job loss today with a double announcement. In Tullamore Boston Scientific announced that it will be closing operations with approximately 250 job losses. This is a serious blow to the midlands egion which has had its fair share of poor jobs news recently. What will be more worrying though is the fact that these jobs were in Medical Device Sector. Meanwhile in Cork there were more construction job losses with the closure of Howley Civil Engineering. This unfortunate news will see similar job loss figures.

2008 Update – 132 people losing job on a daily basis

20,392 employees have been made redundant over the fist seven moths of 2008. This equates to a 36% increase on the same period last year. DETE figures released do not make happy reading for the government or workers in Ireland. More worrying was the fact that 3,914 of the redundancies came in July which is further proof that the job market is in freefall.

What surprised me was the breakdown of these figures. Much spin has been put on the fact that the construction sector has created most redundancies but 6,531 females have been laid of which was higher than I expected. 13,861 men were affected by redundancy.

So where are the redundancy black-spots?

It is no surprise that Dublin has suffered the greatest with 7,500 of the redundancies falling in this region. This was followed by Cork with 1,853 redundancies and in excess of 1,000 in Galway and Limerick. Other counties with significant redundancies included Louth with 698, Waterford with 844 and Kildare with 940. Further north Monaghan has suffer 403 redundancies so far this year.

Hormann Electronics has made 138 staff redundant at its Cork facility. This is a blow to Cork and the IT/Electronics sector in the region. For more on this story ….

Iralco – Job loss fear!!

There are fears for 400 jobs at Iralco in Westmeath as it was announced that a liquidator has been appointed for the plant. Iralco manufactures car components and has been established in the region for 42 years. What makes this announcement worse is that Iralco is one of the biggest employers in the region.

Workers a reported to have been told that the plant would close BUT management refused to confirm if the closure would be permanent or temporary. Unions are working frantically to see if there is any way to save the jobs.

In related news Smurfit Kappa announced that 24 staff would lose their jobs next month. This is more bad news for Waterford as over 500 jobs hang in the balance at Waterford Wedgewood.

There has been much speculation in the last few weeks about Waterford Wedgewood in Waterford. The company has made a plea to the government for a dig out to help save the company. The plea has been for 39m loans for a 3 year period. This would provide financial support to a company expected to make 100m euro losses for the financial year to March 2008.

The company is in the process of reducing its staff by 490 and these loans would help secure the remaining 550 jobs at the factory. The question is how long Waterford Wedgewood can fight a poor exchange rate scenario. The US is a huge market for them and the weakened dollar is showing no sign of improving and if anything it could get weaker.

This situation raises the whole question of government intervention. I would not like to see anyone lose their job so would be in favour of any initiatives to prevent this. Should the government have to do this? Some wealthy people have interests in the company and they could certainly afford 39m. If the government intervenes what about other companies in the future BUT what about all those who lost their jobs in the last 12 months?

These job losses are in th US but this news will be relevant for Irish readers as the US has a big impact on hte Irish economy BUT also Google is a huge employer in Ireland.

Google suffers some negative news!!

Google is slashing 330 jobs at DoubleClick in the US which is about a quarter of the workforce. This is following the acquisition of the company for $3.1bn. Google are being tight lipped about this development which I guess in understandable as no company wants to talk about this type of news.

This type of job cutting has never been associated with Google as it has been up and up for the company. Google’s message is that with any mergers there can be duplication and job loss.

Is this the end of the job cuts for Google and DoubleClick?

We will have to wait and see.

Careersandjobs provides all the latest job news in Ireland and excellent advice on finding a job in Ireland. While you are on the site why not read some of the other interesting posts. For the latest job news on all companies including Google.

Bit late with this news – holidays again!!

Last week Ryanair announced that it would be closing its call centre in Dublin this May with the loss of 40 jobs. The closure of the Telesales operation is part of its cost reduction programme in a bid to deal with the rising prices of oil. MO’L did try to put a positive spin on the events citing that the closure was due to the fact that 99% of Ryanair bookings were now transacted online.

Either way it is 40 staff looking for new employment in Dublin as of May. I have had more bad experiences with Ryanair than good experiences but would not wish this situation on anyone. You have to give credit to Micheal O’Leary though as I did note that he and senior executives were also forgoing pay increases.

We post a variety of career and job advice on this site. We post about new job creation in Ireland but we also post the negative jobs news. Negative job news has been dominating the media in Ireland as there have been quite a few redundancies over the last 12-18 months. I have worked with many employees affected by redundancy and you would be surprised at the mixed reactions. The fact remains that redundancy can affect an individuals confidence and self esteem. If you have been affected by redundancy you can seek support of your own back BUT quite often companies will put supports in place. This is normally called “outplacement”.

How does outplacement help employees?

Basically outplacement consultants help employees to navigate the difficult waters post redundancy. Organisations normally offer staff outplacement support to help them transition into new employment, education or training.

Typically outplacement will be in 1-1 or workshop format. The agenda will cover areas such as support to move on from redundancy, career direction, career assessments, cv design, job search strategies, interview coaching and preparation.

There are many providers of outplacement services in Ireland. Ideally your company will organise this BUT if your company is not providing support you can seek this support yourself.

If you are an employer and require more information about supporting your staff.

24 jobs are lost in Cavan Town due to the closure of Cavan and Monaghan Voice.

Microprint announced the closure of its plant in Tallaght with the loss of 130 jobs. Jacobs announced job losses of 230 in Tallaght last month so this is a double blow to the region.

On the positive side Teva Pharmaceutical announced the creation of 165 jobs at its Waterford site. They currently employ 650 in Waterford.

It seems that most manufacturing is heading for the exit door except in the Pharmaceutical sector. Having said this it has not been all roses for the sector. In 2007 Pfizer announce job cutting but a bigger blow was the postponement of the Amgen investment indefinitely.

I would still say that the Pharmaceutical sector is still one of the safe bets for jobseekers in Ireland. However who knows they way things are changing in this country.