Despite record numbers on the dole, many Irish people will not apply for jobs they see as beneath them, such as hotel and restaurant work, according to employers and job seekers
SO FAR THIS YEAR 6,621 work permits have been issued to non-EU citizens, particularly from China, India, Brazil, Romania, Malaysia and the Philippines, to fill jobs locals seem not to want. The work is overwhelmingly in minimum-wage sectors, including hospitality and catering. At a time when almost 450,000 people are on the live register, the question has to be: why won’t Irish people do the jobs?
Mark Fielding, chief executive of Isme, the organisation for the Irish small- and medium-sized businesses, says its members are having “terrible trouble” filling low-paid jobs, particularly those “that border on minimum wage”, such as factory work, mushroom picking and posts in the fast-food industry.
“The only reason those jobs have gone to workers outside the EU is that they could not get local people to do them. Work permits are not issued unless you can prove you can’t get people locally to do the job. In my view the problem with filling these jobs is the replacement ratio: the fact there’s only a small difference between working for minimum wage and social welfare payments . . . Irish people are saying it’s not worth their while.”
Fielding says that some of the 8,500 businesses Isme represents “had to put some employees on a three-day week, and now those employees won’t come back full time . . . For the first time ever we sent out a memo in our recent newsletter to all employers telling them all the different types of social-welfare benefits employees can claim while still working.
“A big problem is the black economy. People aren’t available for work because they’re working in the black economy. It’s impossible to measure, but we know it’s booming. We’ve had complaints across the board, around the country, from members who are being undercut on quotes from everything to plumbers to electricians.”
Paul Gallagher, president of the Irish Hotels Federation and general manager of Buswells Hotel, in Dublin, is surprised at the low level of interest in some jobs.
“Last week we put an ad into Fás for a chef de partie at Buswells. It’s 39 hours a week, salary between €20,000 and €26,000 a year, depending on experience. It’s a good job, with great opportunities for promotion: in 10 years that person could be earning €100,000. Only three people applied, two Irish and one German. Only one of them bothered showing up for the interview. I couldn’t believe it.
“I don’t know why Irish people aren’t interested in these jobs. Perhaps the hospitality industry aren’t shouting loudly enough about the opportunities that come out of low-level entry jobs.”
WHAT THE JOB HUNTERS SAY
On Wednesday, at a graduate careers fair at the RDS, in Dublin, organised by Gradireland, The Irish Timesasked recent and future graduates if they would take a lower-income job.
Ksenia Romantshenko
Estonian, 31, final-year business student at UCD
“I can see no prospects for a job when I graduate. In Ireland, it doesn’t matter what you know; it’s who you know. An Irish person in my college said that to me who knew I was looking for a job. I used to work as a waitress. Now I have a part-time job at the airport in the business lounge. It’s not a job that is providing me with any progress in my career, but it helps pay the bills, and I have two children, so I need to do it. Many of my Ukrainian, Latvian and Polish friends are working as hotel housekeepers. Irish people don’t want to do those jobs. Maybe it’s the volume of work: whereas my friends used to have to clean 10 rooms on a shift, now they have to clean 15 for the same money. But I think the reason Irish people don’t want to do those kind of jobs is because unemployed people are secured by social welfare, which pays them a lot of money.”
Barry Deenihan
Irish, 22, student at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School
“I’m studying full time at the moment because the course is pretty intense. I’ll be looking for a job in marketing or sales. If I don’t get one here I’ll probably emigrate. It’s not a case of faraway fields are greenest, but there are more opportunities in other countries. Ireland has developed so much over the last decade it’s like we think certain jobs are beneath us now. I do think some people are freeloading on the State, because Irish people aren’t exactly looking for those lower-paid jobs that other people are prepared to do.”
Jian Shen
Chinese, completing a master’s in computer science at Trinity College Dublin
“I will stay in Ireland if I can find a job, hopefully as a software developer. Right now I have a part-time job in the kitchen of a pub. The kitchen porter is also from China. The kitchen assistant is Polish. The bar staff are all Irish . . . There are no Irish people working in the kitchen. Maybe Irish people don’t like doing those jobs, because they are always telling me how hard it is, even though they don’t work there themselves. I do think some Irish people are lazy. You only have to look at the people begging on the street. Most of them are Irish. I never see Chinese people begging.”
J Whoryonwon Ta-Uway
Liberian, 24, completing final year studying finance at Blanchardstown IT
“I’ve been here five years with my family. I’d like to work in the banking sector in Ireland when I graduate. At present I have a part-time job as a sales assistant at TK Maxx . . . Irish people have unrealistic expectations about the kind of jobs they are prepared to do. But that is what happens when you have migration to a country . . . Local people don’t want to do the menial jobs.”
Andrew
Irish, 23, postgraduate economics student
“I’m studying full time. In the summer most of my classmates held out for proper jobs, or were on waiting lists for internships, rather than working lower-paid jobs. One or two got unpaid internships but most ended up not working anywhere at all, because they waited so long. Irish people still don’t want to be seen doing these jobs like working in kitchens or fast-food restaurants. You have to ask yourself: is it worth doing those jobs for an extra €100 a week? Personally, I didn’t study for five years to work in McDonald’s. If I don’t get a job in my sector in Ireland when I graduate I’ll emigrate.” Andrew gives his full name and then, at the end of the interview, changes his mind about going on the record. “I’d prefer if you didn’t use my full name.” Why? “I don’t want to be portrayed as a student stereotype who’d prefer to bum around rather than work.”
Claire
Irish, 24, biotechnology graduate
“I’m not working at the moment. Most of my class went on to do further study or left the country. I worked for a while in a bridal dress shop . . . but it wasn’t the kind of thing I really wanted to do. I don’t have the gift of the gab, and I was being pushed to sell and to tell people dresses suited them when they didn’t. I didn’t like it at all. Would I consider taking a lower-paid job? I have been considering lots of things. I think I’ve spent too much time considering what I’m going to do and not enough time actually doing anything.” Claire did not want to give her full name.
Muna Al Thurwi
Saudi Arabian, 24, computer science student in Maynooth
“I don’t have a part-time job because I have a scholarship from the Saudi government, but I think Ireland and Saudi Arabia are now facing the same problems with local people who don’t want to work any more in low-paying jobs like in kitchens or gas stations. Saudi people won’t do those jobs either now. We import labour from Asian and African countries. I think this is a social problem, and the government must be the organisation that looks for the solution. People must realise that there are many types of learning and it is not all about the title of the job you do but the fact that you have a job. You have to build your personality and not stay in your own social class.”
Elaine Butler
Irish, 21, final-year business studies student at DCU
I’d like to work in finance, maybe tax or auditing. But I’m keeping an open mind. I’ve been down to Aldi and Lidl, asking about store-manager jobs, and I’d also be interested in the accountancy side of things . . . I’m also looking at doing things this year to make my CV stand out from the crowd, like volunteering. I’m hoping to climb Kilimanjaro for charity and run in the women’s mini marathon. I don’t have a part-time job at the moment, but I’ve applied for a job in Tesco around Christmas to stack shelves. I’d do anything . . . I think Irish people got more and more stuck-up as time went on about jobs they wouldn’t do. But I’d prefer to be cleaning toilets than being handed money from the State. Working makes me feel good. It’s not just about money. I couldn’t sit at home all day doing nothing.”
