Jobs and Unemployment Watch - Unemployment 7.7 % and Rising - 450 headline losses today

http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1015178.shtml

Not good figures - however there are still many more people working than 10 years ago, and there are 200 jobs coming to Carlow.

This thread is for news and ideas on employment.

Sorry but it's bad news for someone somewhere.

Quote :

Citigroup plans to cut 50,000 more jobs, largely by selling assets.

Citigroup said Monday that it would cut 50,000 jobs, from investment bankers to the back office, in the coming quarters, largely by selling assets.

In a meeting with employees, the bank's executives also said that Citigroup was seeking to shore up its capital base and cut risky positions. In addition, the bank would trim expenses by 16 percent to 19 percent, to about $50 billion in 2009.

The job cuts would be in addition to about 23,000 layoffs already this year.

Most of the job reductions would come through attrition or the sale of units, the bank said, meaning the actual number of layoffs could be less at the bank. The cuts would leave the bank with about 300,000 employees, down from its peak of about 375,000 in the fourth quarter of last year.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/17/business/citi.php

Woolworth's gone bust?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7751064.stm

eoinmn wrote:

Woolworth's gone bust?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7751064.stm

and MFI

Auditor #9 wrote:

Sorry but it's bad news for someone somewhere.

Quote :

Citigroup plans to cut 50,000 more jobs, largely by selling assets.

Citigroup said Monday that it would cut 50,000 jobs, from investment bankers to the back office, in the coming quarters, largely by selling assets.

In a meeting with employees, the bank's executives also said that Citigroup was seeking to shore up its capital base and cut risky positions. In addition, the bank would trim expenses by 16 percent to 19 percent, to about $50 billion in 2009.

The job cuts would be in addition to about 23,000 layoffs already this year.

Most of the job reductions would come through attrition or the sale of units, the bank said, meaning the actual number of layoffs could be less at the bank. The cuts would leave the bank with about 300,000 employees, down from its peak of about 375,000 in the fourth quarter of last year.

The Citigroup story is mindblowing. Utterly mindblowing. The idea that what is essentially the world's largest bank could go down in a serious way is shocking. Never mind being, "too big to fail", it is, "too big to bail". The loans on Citigroup's books are equal in value to the GDP of the UK and Switzerland combined. If Citigroup collapses then that would be a red letter, as well as red umbrella, day. It seems like the only banks that will be left at the end of this will be the postal banks and the few the governments have decided to nationalise. O happy days.

At the moment people are choosing to keep any spare money they have in a sock under the bed.

The alternative banking threads here are taking on a degree of urgency.

cactus flower wrote:

eoinmn wrote:

Woolworth's gone bust?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7751064.stm

and MFI

If I remember correctly both have been tinkering on the edge for nearly a decade.

My father had to break the bad news of redundancy to several employees today. Made dinner this evening a rather somber affair.

The CSO have released figures for the Live Register for November. These are not full unemployment figures as they don't include people on 3 day weeks or on Jobseeker allowances.
The last figure for June to August was 160,600 persons unemployed.

Quote :

The unadjusted Live Register increased to 268,586 in November from 251,951 in
October, a monthly increase of 16,635 (+6.6%). This increase was reflected in all
regions, with the largest percentage increase in the Mid-West region (+8.1%). The
smallest percentage increases were in the Dublin and South-East regions (both
+5.7%).
In the year to November 2008, the unadjusted Live Register increased by 106,864
(+66.1%). All regions showed annual increases with the largest percentage
increase in the Mid-East region (+81.6%). The Dublin region had the smallest
percentage increase (+58.7%). See table 1.

We are on our way to 12% unemployment in the Spring.

A round of costly sackings of public sector workers is the last thing we need. A good number of them could be moved over to help out in the Department of Social Welfare.

Quote :

America’s jobless total was hit by the biggest rise in 34 years last month, figures out today show.

Employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November, catapulting the unemployment rate to 6.7%.

The figures, released by the Labor Department, showed the employment market deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid pace.

Job losses were widespread, hitting factories, building companies, financial firms, retailers, leisure and hospitality, and other industries. The few places where gains were logged included the government, education and health services.

The loss of 533,000 jobs was much deeper than the 320,000 job cuts economists were forecasting. The rise in the unemployment rate, however, was not as steep as the 6.8% rate they were expecting.

The job reductions were the most since 602,000 positions were slashed in December 1974, when the country was in a severe recession.

Job losses in September and October also turned out to be much worse. Employers cut 403,000 jobs in September, versus 284,000 previously estimated. Another 320,000 were chopped in October, compared with an initial estimate of 240,000.

Employers are slashing costs to the bone as they try to cope with falling demand.

Hard Times are coming around again.

Quote :

Dell to axe 1,900 jobs

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/mhsnmhojcwql/

Computer giant Dell is to axe 1,900 jobs at its flagship manufacturing plant in Limerick, the company confirmed today.

In a devastating blow for the region, the US multinational will end production at its Limerick factory in favour of a new facility and cheaper workforce in Poland.

Dell said the move was part of a $3bn (€2.2bn) global cost-cutting drive announced last year.

The lay-offs will begin in April and will be completed by January of next year.

Dell says affected employees will receive severance packages and assistance in finding new jobs.

Will start laying people off in April apparently. Been on the news all morning. Competitive wages in Poland the reason.

I feel deeply grieved about this. It didn't need to happen and could be seen coming from the early 2,000s.

I feel very sorry for the people who have lost their jobs in Dell and the people who are badly affected by Dell's closure. Having said that, I am hoping that the people of Limerick, and of Ireland generally, ask the only question which should be asked in this sorry saga "Why did the government not do more to broaden the base of industry in Limerick and the country generally by investing much more in domestic industries so that, when a closure of this nature occured, an entire region would not have been so drastically affected?"

When I think of the fatal dependence wilfully fostered by this government over the past 11 years, the image of Harney, as Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment for 7 year, appearing on the news grinning gormlessly while she cut ribbons comes to mind. No thinking, no planning, no intelligence, no savvy, only short-term pöpulist shite. That is what this government has been doing since 1997. A truly awful performance and yet another reason I left.

Well, I guess the "good" news on latest job loss news is that, if it keeps up, we'll be "best in Europe" (to use that phrase beloved by politicans a few years ago) in Unemployment. The latest Eurostat figures has Ireland closing fast on the leaders in this category!

Slim Buddha wrote:

I feel very sorry for the people who have lost their jobs in Dell and the people who are badly affected by Dell's closure. Having said that, I am hoping that the people of Limerick, and of Ireland generally, ask the only question which should be asked in this sorry saga "Why did the government not do more to broaden the base of industry in Limerick and the country generally by investing much more in domestic industries so that, when a closure of this nature occured, an entire region would not have been so drastically affected?"

When I think of the fatal dependence wilfully fostered by this government over the past 11 years, the image of Harney, as Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment for 7 year, appearing on the news grinning gormlessly while she cut ribbons comes to mind. No thinking, no planning, no intelligence, no savvy, only short-term pöpulist shite. That is what this government has been doing since 1997. A truly awful performance and yet another reason I left.

I was just ranting there to someone here on the same topic - we needed to have been investing all along in sustainable local industry, trouble is the atmosphere of that sort of investment imo depends on the cultural mindset of the people and that doesn't change overnight. We should have been cultivating it and maybe we might have been. How could we get it started up at all now if it's not too late ?

I'm convinced a website or some central routing point might do a lot to heal that. People could post their ideas and they'd be assessed online by our team here. People might also post their demands however small or large - maybe it could be for tree-pruners, rat-catchers, dog-trainers and so on and that would be an online tissue of economic needs that could be met in an open marketplace.

Just throwing that one out though. I'm also wondering how much our energy costs contributed to overall Dell costs too - and the whole sphere of the minimum wage too.

Paul R wrote:

Well, I guess the "good" news on latest job loss news is that, if it keeps up, we'll be "best in Europe" (to use that phrase beloved by politicans a few years ago) in Unemployment. The latest Eurostat figures has Ireland closing fast on the leaders in this category!

Sorry to jump over your post there. Your link doesn't seem to be working.

Slim Buddha wrote:

I feel very sorry for the people who have lost their jobs in Dell and the people who are badly affected by Dell's closure. Having said that, I am hoping that the people of Limerick, and of Ireland generally, ask the only question which should be asked in this sorry saga "Why did the government not do more to broaden the base of industry in Limerick and the country generally by investing much more in domestic industries so that, when a closure of this nature occured, an entire region would not have been so drastically affected?"

When I think of the fatal dependence wilfully fostered by this government over the past 11 years, the image of Harney, as Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment for 7 year, appearing on the news grinning gormlessly while she cut ribbons comes to mind. No thinking, no planning, no intelligence, no savvy, only short-term pöpulist shite. That is what this government has been doing since 1997. A truly awful performance and yet another reason I left.

"Best" indeed Paul R - we're prone to extremes and perhaps its time we did decide on a few things to be best at.

Slim Buddha, are you too young to remember this ?
"Culliton Report", in B. Lalor (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Ireland
Author(s) - O'Malley, E
Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, November 2003

Culliton Report (1992), a report to the Republic’s Minister for Industry and Commerce by the Industrial Policy Review Group (chaired by Jim Culliton). Entitled A Time for Change: Industrial Policy for the 1990s, the report called for a broader approach to formulating policy for industry and made recommendations on a wide range of relevant public policy areas, including taxation, infrastructure, education, training, science, and technology. It also recommended reducing reliance on industrial grants, a greater emphasis on fostering clusters of related industries, greater commitment to developing Irish indigenous industry, and reformed institutional structures for industrial policy.

I wouldn't agree with every single thing in it, but it would have been a very good basis to work on. It was ignored in favour of FDI reliance. There was great discussion at the time it was written with a lot of very good working papers and submissions.

It should be dug out again.

cactus flower wrote:

Slim Buddha wrote:

I feel very sorry for the people who have lost their jobs in Dell and the people who are badly affected by Dell's closure. Having said that, I am hoping that the people of Limerick, and of Ireland generally, ask the only question which should be asked in this sorry saga "Why did the government not do more to broaden the base of industry in Limerick and the country generally by investing much more in domestic industries so that, when a closure of this nature occured, an entire region would not have been so drastically affected?"

When I think of the fatal dependence wilfully fostered by this government over the past 11 years, the image of Harney, as Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment for 7 year, appearing on the news grinning gormlessly while she cut ribbons comes to mind. No thinking, no planning, no intelligence, no savvy, only short-term pöpulist shite. That is what this government has been doing since 1997. A truly awful performance and yet another reason I left.

"Best" indeed Paul R - we're prone to extremes and perhaps its time we did decide on a few things to be best at.

Slim Buddha, are you too young to remember this ?
"Culliton Report", in B. Lalor (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Ireland
Author(s) - O'Malley, E
Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, November 2003

Culliton Report (1992), a report to the Republic’s Minister for Industry and Commerce by the Industrial Policy Review Group (chaired by Jim Culliton). Entitled A Time for Change: Industrial Policy for the 1990s, the report called for a broader approach to formulating policy for industry and made recommendations on a wide range of relevant public policy areas, including taxation, infrastructure, education, training, science, and technology. It also recommended reducing reliance on industrial grants, a greater emphasis on fostering clusters of related industries, greater commitment to developing Irish indigenous industry, and reformed institutional structures for industrial policy.

I wouldn't agree with every single thing in it, but it would have been a very good basis to work on. It was ignored in favour of FDI reliance. There was great discussion at the time it was written with a lot of very good working papers and submissions.

It should be dug out again.

Yes , indeed, cactus, a well known tome. With a lot of good stuff in it. Like yourself, I would not go along with all the specifics but the overall direction was the right one.

Sacrificed on the gombeen altar of gobshitery.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Paul R wrote:

Well, I guess the "good" news on latest job loss news is that, if it keeps up, we'll be "best in Europe" (to use that phrase beloved by politicans a few years ago) in Unemployment. The latest Eurostat figures has Ireland closing fast on the leaders in this category!

Sorry to jump over your post there. Your link doesn't seem to be working.

Auditor - I tried the link again and it seems to work okay. Admittedly, it is slow (for me) as it opens a PDF.

The alternative "Copy-and-Paste a link into your browser" address is: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/PGP_PRD_CAT_PREREL/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2009/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2009_MONTH_01/3-08012009-EN-AP.PDF

Re: the Culliton Report

Well let's dig it up and have a look. Wasn't there a few other great reports all along that some of the younger 18 and 20 somethings around here should know about?

Wasn't there a Spatial Strategy one and the famous EU one too - can't remember the damn name now

Let's start a new thread, hell let's start a new project !

Paul R wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:

Paul R wrote:

Well, I guess the "good" news on latest job loss news is that, if it keeps up, we'll be "best in Europe" (to use that phrase beloved by politicans a few years ago) in Unemployment. The latest Eurostat figures has Ireland closing fast on the leaders in this category!

Sorry to jump over your post there. Your link doesn't seem to be working.

Auditor - I tried the link again and it seems to work okay. Admittedly, it is slow (for me) as it opens a PDF.

The alternative "Copy-and-Paste a link into your browser" address is: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/PGP_PRD_CAT_PREREL/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2009/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2009_MONTH_01/3-08012009-EN-AP.PDF

That's working lovely now thanks. The reason it was slow was because the unemployment figure was so high.

We're about EU average anyway. 13% unemployment in Spain ...

Auditor #9 wrote:

Re: the Culliton Report

Well let's dig it up and have a look. Wasn't there a few other great reports all along that some of the younger 18 and 20 somethings around here should know about?

Wasn't there a Spatial Strategy one and the famous EU one too - can't remember the damn name now

Let's start a new thread, hell let's start a new project !

Can't find it on pdf. May not be available on the internet. Damn.

Quote :

09/01/2009 - 11:36:03
More than 16,000 more people signed on the Live Register in the final month of last year, according to the latest figures from the CSO.

The statistics agency says the total number of people on the dole surged to 293,500 in December, representing an increase of 71% throughout 2008.

The standardised unemployment rate in December was 8.3%, compared to the latest seasonally adjusted rate of 6.3% in the third quarter of 2008.

More than three-quarters of December's increase was made up of male workers.

A lot of this is construction related. This year it is manufacturing and retail, and possibly public services.

The point in sacking public sector workers in order to pay them on the dole eludes me. Pay cuts appear infinitely preferable.

Quote :

09/01/2009 - 11:56:48
The State training agency FÁS says it expects Ireland's unemployment rate to exceed 12% this year.

The organisation was responding to the latest CSO figures putting the standardised unemployment rate in December at 8.3%.

The total number of people on the Live Register increased by 71% last year to 293,500.

FÁS says it is deeply concerned by the rapid acceleration and believes 2009 will be another difficult year on the jobs front.

BN

cactus flower wrote:

Quote :

09/01/2009 - 11:36:03
More than 16,000 more people signed on the Live Register in the final month of last year, according to the latest figures from the CSO.

The statistics agency says the total number of people on the dole surged to 293,500 in December, representing an increase of 71% throughout 2008.

The standardised unemployment rate in December was 8.3%, compared to the latest seasonally adjusted rate of 6.3% in the third quarter of 2008.

More than three-quarters of December's increase was made up of male workers.

A lot of this is construction related. This year it is manufacturing and retail, and possibly public services.

The point in sacking public sector workers in order to pay them on the dole eludes me. Pay cuts appear infinitely preferable.

Quote :

09/01/2009 - 11:56:48
The State training agency FÁS says it expects Ireland's unemployment rate to exceed 12% this year.

The organisation was responding to the latest CSO figures putting the standardised unemployment rate in December at 8.3%.

The total number of people on the Live Register increased by 71% last year to 293,500.

FÁS says it is deeply concerned by the rapid acceleration and believes 2009 will be another difficult year on the jobs front.

BN

Where in the CSO did you find all that ?? I've been looking all morning, well for the last six minutes, and could find nothing. It's harder than the Yellow Pages

http://www.cso.ie/default.htm

Ohh scratch that I think I found it

oops

Sorry Auditor - this is all from Breaking News. The US figures have just come our on CNN and they are 7.2% - 500,024 extra people in December, but they are quite pleased as they had expected higher, and they seem to have some confidence in the stimulus package.
Health and Education jobs were up in December.
Total 11 million unemployed in the US and 20 million on short time.