Job losses reached highest ever level in January

JOB LOSSES surged to their highest ever level in January, as 6,708 people were made redundant, renewing fears that dole queues will spiral in 2009.

The record monthly number of redundancies last month was 143 per cent higher than the number of redundancies in the same month last year. The job losses were described as “scandalous” by the Small Firms’ Association (SFA) and as “shocking” by business group ISME.

Figures from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment’s redundancy payments division confirm that services, construction and manufacturing jobs all evaporated in large numbers.

The services sector was hardest hit. Some 2,088 services jobs were lost, with that number rising to 2,594 when financial services, transport and communications redundancies are included. There were 2,022 redundancies in the building and civil engineering sector and 1,625 manufacturing jobs were lost. Some of the redundancies are likely to relate to job losses that were announced at the tail end of 2008, with many of the high-profile job cuts of recent weeks likely to add to the numbers in the months ahead.

The figures published yesterday take account of redundancies that have actually taken place, rather than those announced for implementation over coming months.

SFA director Patricia Callan said the Government’s economic recovery plan, due to be announced today, must include tangible measures to support businesses. “Ireland cannot afford to keep losing an average of over 320 jobs a day in 2009.”

The Government has already said that the number of people on the Live Register of unemployment benefit claimants has breached 300,000. Official figures for the January Live Register are due to be published tomorrow.

The number of redundancies rose 60 per cent in 2008, as the economy went into reverse.

The Department of Finance now expects that the rate of unemployment will rise to more than 10 per cent this year. This will inflate the State’s social welfare bill and have knock-on effects for retail sector jobs, as consumers’ spending power is curtailed further.

Retail Excellence Ireland warned yesterday that 40,000 jobs would be lost in the retail sector in the first three months of 2009, with more than 60,000 retail jobs likely to disappear over the year as a whole. The sector employs more than 300,000 people in the Irish economy.

David Fitzsimons, Retail Excellence Ireland’s chief executive, said “unjustifiably high” pricing by UK suppliers, high rents and “excessive” wage costs were putting extreme pressure on retailers.

Almost two-thirds of its 8,000 members told its business confidence survey that they would go out of business over the next 12 months in the absence of any Government intervention.

Retail Excellence Ireland, which represents a third of Irish retailers, called on the Government to introduce a line of credit to cash-starved retailers, abandon the minimum wage increase and introduce a code of practice for lease law that would include the abolition of “increase only” agreements.