Jobs fairytale has nightmare chapter

The most recent release from the Central Statistics Office shows that employment growth for the third-quarter this year continues to slow a little. Growth in the labour force reached a peak in the second half of last year and has moderated since. This means that the annual increase in employment is almost 11,000 fewer than the previous quarter although this year's summer employment numbers are still the highest ever recorded. The bottom line - the unemployment rate for the third-quarter was a mere 4.3 per cent and almost all of the annual growth was in full-time employment. In the third quarter of last year, the unemployment rate was 5.7 per cent. The EU average is 8.3 per cent.

Everyone talks about labour shortages in Ireland, but the labour force actually grew by 3.6 per cent this year, partly due to our changing demographics, which means that there are more people old enough to work, and partly due to changes in the population who are now available to work. The increased participation of women in the labour force has been significant. Almost 40 per cent of the increase in the labour supply is due to women, especially older women.

There are a good deal more men than women in the 65-plus age bracket who are still earning a crust. It will be interesting to see, 40 years from now, whether the twenty-something women helping to power the economy opt to retire. Or will they be the chief executives of the future who refuse to bow out despite the fact that a younger person would really, really like their job?

All of this good news on the employment front is tempered by another fairly recent report - this time from the UN and dealing with a topic close to the heart of anyone who has hauled themselves out of bed in the morning and through the interminable traffic into work.

The UN survey looked at stress in the workplace in five countries and discovered that levels of anxiety, depression and burnout are increasing.

The countries looked at were the United States, Britain, Germany, Finland and Poland. According to the survey, onetenth of the workers surveyed suffered from despair, followed by depression. People are worried about losing their jobs - many companies continue to pursue policies of mergers and downsizing while employing people on short-term contracts. Employees find it hard to cope with the rate of change that development in technology brings as well as the constant change in their own places of work.

According to the Confederation of British Industry, stress in the workplace is costing more than £5 billion (€8.18 billion) a year in lost working days.

It is certainly true that working practices have changed dramatically. Gone are the days of long lunches, unproductive afternoons and rushing out the door on the dot of five o'clock. Even in an economy like Ireland, where people can pick and choose their jobs, they still have to be prepared to work increasingly unsocial hours while their commute gets longer.

Many companies are part of multinationals that issue things like "mission statements" urging their employees to be pro-active and to act on their own initiative while thecompanies themselves constantly run a sharp blade over labour costs.

You could burn the midnight oil to come up with an innovative plan for the betterment of the firm only to discover that the management has decided to consolidate all of its administrative functions in the Philippines. So you're out of a job - and don't tell me that someone else won't take credit for your plan when you're moving on. Right now, though, there are still places to move on to, although I wonder for how long more people can play employment hopscotch through the IT and telecoms sectors.

I have lost track of the number of different pricing offers that have come through the door about my telephone bill lately - the company I was with merged with someone else which meant having to sign up again and I really haven't had time to work out whether I'm better or worse off.

There seems to be more and more of them ready to shower me promises about how they'll make my life easier. They're like fund managers - everyone can be top of at least one league once you pick the league yourself. The fund manager with best returns over three years could be the worst over five. The cheapest company for a three-minute call might blitz you once you go over that. If someone who could summarise the information in a meaningful way, they'd be worth their weight in mission statements.