Sir, - I sympathise with your need to publish stories which encourage people to buy your newspaper. Your lead story (November 2nd ), "1,200 jobs go as new figures show unemployment rising" accomplishes this task, as does Jamie Smyth's article "14,000 out of work since January" printed on the same day.
Unfortunately both pieces lack balance. Nowhere is the reader instructed as to the number of jobs created in this State since the beginning of the year. The labour force is growing strongly every year by virtue of the age profile of the population and net immigration. Thus, paradoxically, an increase in the numbers of people out of work is not inconsistent with more people actually working. Labour force data collected to the end of June show 53,000 more people were in employment in the first six months of this year than in the first six months of 2000.
Also readers would be forgiven for believing that the IDA is the only source of employment growth in this country. References to IDA client firms pepper both articles. Smyth comments that "there are no official figures yet available on the number of new jobs created from foreign direct investment this year", as if this sector of the economy was the only one capable of employment growth. Indeed the only reference to the broader domestic economy is a comment on the 317 job losses at the Kylemore Bakery, which is given as an illustration of how global economic slowdown has resulted in hundreds of job losses in traditional industries. I must confess the linkage escapes me.
I would not wish to minimise for a moment the real individual trauma that results from losing one's job, however I think it is important to be informed about what is happening in this economy at an aggregate level. For the last five years 70,000 net new jobs have been created in Ireland per annum. Of these, 7,000 approximately per annum have been created in "foreign-owned industry" and roughly 50,000 per annum have been created in the services sector, the bulk of which are typically domestically-owned businesses, no fanfare, no announcements by the IDA . . . just plain vanilla job creation hardly worthy of a headline from The Irish Times. How about sending a journalist to Clonshuagh or Macroom to follow up on the people who lost their jobs when Gateway and General Semiconductor announced plant closures earlier this year to assess how many of these people have been able to find employment subsequently? Now that is something that your readers might find truly interesting. - Yours, etc.,
Linda Hickey, Portobello, Dublin 8.