Job Loss in Ireland Today

[soma]

Was talking to some people involved in the games industry recently
.
.
Labour costs were a concern but the lack of available talent was the biggest one. Most talent needs to be imported.

I have friends who have worked in the Games industry for many years. What these companies are saying is that there is no talent available for the price they are willing to pay. The salaries most of these companies are willing to pay are atrocious.

Not only that but they constantly seem to only want young 23-27 year old programmers who are single etc, so they don't mind working endless 'free' weekends and crazy levels of unpaid overtime.

 

[soma]

I don't see where all these IT jobs are. Anyone I know in IT inlcuding myself isn't seeing it. Only places reporting it that I see are the media the agencies, and the colleges.

I completely agree. Alot of it stems from the problem that agencies such as FAS etc seem to get away with calling almost anything an "I.T. job".

 

[aircobra19]

I have friends who have worked in the Games industry for many years. What these companies are saying is that there is no talent available for the price they are willing to pay. The salaries most of these companies are willing to pay are atrocious.

Not only that but they constantly seem to only want young 23-27 year old programmers who are single etc, so they don't mind working endless 'free' weekends and crazy levels of unpaid overtime.

Thats the nature of the games industry, not just in Ireland either. Days of big bonus'es and skyhigh salaries are gone. Salaries are ok if you have experience. Hours are terrible though.

I completely agree. Alot of it stems from the problem that agencies such as FAS etc seem to get away with calling almost anything an "I.T. job".

In fairness FAS isn't the worst. http://tinyurl.com/ynucu4

*Total of: 6904 Jobs*

Animal, Land, Marine, Mining & Exploration (162)
Arts, Literature (35)
Cleaning, Security & Maintenance (553)
Factory, Production & Related Services (247)
Hair & Beauty (149)
Hotel, Tourism , Travel & Catering (1626)
Information Technology (279)
Professional, Administrative, Clerical (1127)
Purchasing, Warehousing, Transport, Distribution (424)
Sales, Marketing, PR, Advertising & Property (804)
Social, Health, Welfare, Childcare (427)
Sport & Leisure (50)
Trades & Related Occupations (1152)
Training & Education (59)

Thats the national job agency. You think you'd see some sign of 14,000 tech vacancies there wouldn't you.

 

[beattie]

In fairness FAS isn't the worst. http://tinyurl.com/ynucu4

*Total of: 6904 Jobs*

Animal, Land, Marine, Mining & Exploration (162)
Arts, Literature (35)
Cleaning, Security & Maintenance (553)
Factory, Production & Related Services (247)
Hair & Beauty (149)
Hotel, Tourism , Travel & Catering (1626)
Information Technology (279)
Professional, Administrative, Clerical (1127)
Purchasing, Warehousing, Transport, Distribution (424)
Sales, Marketing, PR, Advertising & Property (804)
Social, Health, Welfare, Childcare (427)
Sport & Leisure (50)
Trades & Related Occupations (1152)
Training & Education (59)

Thats the national job agency. You think you'd see some sign of 14,000 tech vacancies there wouldn't you.

As someone who attended their recent expo in Croke Park there wasn't as much in the way of concrete jobs as I would have expected. More aimed at a school leaver I thought

 

[aircobra19]

As someone who attended their recent expo in Croke Park there wasn't as much in the way of concrete jobs as I would have expected. More aimed at a school leaver I thought

The IT jobs in Dublin on the FAS site have a salary range between 20~82k. That can't be school leavers. They seem to be real jobs too, judging by the company details in the adverts. Unlike the generic imaginary ones that some recruitment agencies avertise. You could be right about the expo, I wasn't there so I can't comment.

 

[sunrock]

It is very hard to know about the job market,until one starts looking for a job.
As mentioned colleges,media,recruitment agencies have a vested interest in talking up the jobs market.
The fact that a lot of jobs are done through agencies and are short contracts or indeed part time or from one day to another, obscures the true position.
For example if a company has one position and places an ad with 5 agencies....these agencies then advertise this job and maybe each agency talks to 20 canidates each .....thats 100 people thinking that this is a possible job for them.....of course the agencies tell most canidates that they need abit more experience or there is some other reason that there are not quite suitable.
The overall affect is to give the public the impression that there are such a lot of jobs waiting to be filled....whereas this may not be the case at all.
The reason that people who lost their jobs at places like motorola and other mncs are so concerned , is that they know they won`t find comparable jobs so easily.
O.K. maybe they can find a lower paid job or a less qualified job but the competition for these jobs is very intense with all the immigrants, who incidentally are probably over qualified for these jobs, also applying.
To be honest i am not sure what the job situation is....i suspect it is o.k. in big urban areas and not so good in remoter areas.

 

[Marie]

Some crunch-able statistics here on Irish employment trends up to 2004 from the Central Statistics Office but not much in the way of analysis [broken link removed]

 

[aircobra19]

Some crunch-able statistics here on Irish employment trends up to 2004 from the Central Statistics Office but not much in the way of analysis [broken link removed]

Can't see anything about 14000 IT jobs in there either...

 

[joe sod]

Entrepreneur talent and R&D cannot flourish in the current milieu of (American-style) 'short-term-ism'. They need some fundamental security with transparent (un-corrupt!!!) and consistent government incentive as bedrock.

good point, you can bet that the top jobs in american multinationals including motorola even in difficult times are very secure. They may be short termist in ireland but they are long termist in america. In other words to be really where its at with these companies and to see the full picture and to be in the know, you have to work in their american operations. I know out sourcing has affected american workers also, but they feel alot more pressure and heat from the american government than they do from an irish government. Even if these companies move operations to asia you can be sure they will not be given the full picture, the most important work will always be done in america. Therefore a big shift in government stategy here must now be implemented to wean ireland off multinationals.

 

[davet]

I don't see where all these IT jobs are. Anyone I know in IT inlcuding myself isn't seeing it.

I also work in IT, as do alot of people I know. Most of the companys are *crying* out for staff, highly paid staff on well above the industrial average. They do get plenty of interest too when interviewing but most of the applicants are frankly incompetent.

 

[aircobra19]

I also work in IT, as do alot of people I know. Most of the companys are *crying* out for staff, highly paid staff on well above the industrial average. They do get plenty of interest too when interviewing but most of the applicants are frankly incompetent.

You'd think people spot that from the CV and filter accordingly. What difference does the industrial average make? Supply and demand. I know we offered roles at 35~45k and got few applicants. Mainly because a lot of potential applicants are getting 45~60 elsewhere. Interviewed and found most applicants were under qualified, under experienced. Hardly surprising. The cost of living means people expect higer salaries theres no escaping that. I'm sure if we'd offered 50~60 the calibre of applicants would have been much higher. We could also upskill are existing staff. But hardly anywhere does that properly now.

 

[jmayo]

Can someone please tell me where all these IT jobs are?
Motorolla employees knew this was coming with months, a good friend informed me of this back in mid January. It only officially makes it to the media recently. Watch Dell, they will be making decisions regarding future and the move out of Limerick will be moved up in order to cut costs further.

 

[Howitzer]

A lot of what is termed IT jobs by the Govt and the IDA are nothing of the sort. Call centres for Google, localisataion for Symantec and shrink wrapping boxes for Creative Labs.

 

[conor_mc]

Good news at IBM in Cork and Galway today according to NewsTalk this morning - 100 software dev jobs in Cork and another 30 in Galway apparently.