how will the recession affect you personally ?

what will you do shammy feen. would you emigrate with your family or work in london for example and come home every few weeks
 

What sort of IT specialist are you? There appear to be plenty programming jobs around, but not as much as there were a year ago to be sure.
As for the India thing, I was made redundant a few years back when my (American owned) employer moved it's IT dept to India. But I have talked to management there since, and to management in other companies, and they say that moving work to India causes as many problems as it solves. In general this is due to communication problems, and incorrect ideas as to what was meant in the specs. This of course is just anecdotal.
 
husband (working in construction industry) hasn't worked in 10 weeks, with nothing in the pipeline so has applied for jobs in other areas - so hopefully that'll work out. i'm in construction industry as well - scary times ahead i feel.
 



Of course we have the north south shopping issue but I think you will have to agree that anyone in the service industry is having to offer value for money. In addition More people are now going to Lidl etc and splitting their shopping too. Suggesting that people are now becoming aware of prices.
Go back two years and the amount of people who wouldn't even return phone calls was alarming. Tradesmen charging movie star rates and people were happy to pay it.
Anyone with a good customer base and who was aware of the term customer sadisfaction during the good times will survive this downturn.It will bring a bit of sanity back to the system.
 
Why is it every time I open a newspaper, potential students are being told to study IT when the salaries and competition for jobs is crap ?
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I'd prefer to see job ads than stories about the importance of IT. There's a couple reasons for these stories, one is that colleges are crying out to fill IT courses, another is that government is genuinely worried about what will happen to our economy as students continue to avoid IT courses.

The government should have thought about that before it allowed the public sector to chase and pretty much surpass IT earnings in benchmarking 1. I know one excellent student who started a computer science course in a university but two years in got accepted for the Gardai and ran for the exit. And it was unarguably the correct decision, pay, holidays, work hours, pension, retirement age. Problem is it would only be the correct decision in Ireland.
 

I'm not sure it's fair to blame the public sector specifically - although they are indeed contributors - but I agree the wages in ICT leave a lot to be desired. I hold a PhD in telecommunications and yet I still find I don't have much in the way of pricing power when it comes to the labour market. If you are willing to work as a contractor the pay is much better but there is zero job security.

The problem is that as an industry ICT is massively exposed to global competition which keeps wages down. Although in the long run this may ensure its viability as an industry in this country (I hope).
 
room305 said:
The problem is that as an industry ICT is massively exposed to global competition which keeps wages down. Although in the long run this may ensure its viability as an industry in this country (I hope).
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This is spot on.

My suspicion is that Qwertyuiop contracts into Finance or the Public Sector, neither of which are, currently, typical ICT markets. Could be very wrong though.
 

Would you be happy to see wages in the retail sector (ie the minimum wage) drop back to the same level as UK/NI?
 
ubiquitous said:
Would you be happy to see wages in the retail sector (ie the minimum wage) drop back to the same level as UK/NI?
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They probably will do over the next few years, as inflation takes hold and wages don't increase.
 
ubiquitous said:
Would you be happy to see wages in the retail sector (ie the minimum wage) drop back to the same level as UK/NI?
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FYI, the biggest cost for a newish retailer is the actual property: rent + service charges. When asked recently why their prices were higher here than in mainland Europe the head of Lidl Ireland said simply - property costs.

Wages are higher here but the difference of 1 or 2 euros an hour on the minimum wage isn't the determining factor for the higher operating costs of Irish business.
 
Good point.

UK min wage = 5.52 stg ph = 7-7.10 euro ph

Here it's 8.65 ph.

Ok, it is higher here, but I agree that it's the huge land costs and rents that contribute to higher prices here.
 

That's a very interesting point and goes against my previous understanding that wage levels were to blame. The UK minimum wage is £5.52/€6.90 per hour. The ROI rate is €8.65 per hour - 25% higher.

What puzzles me about blaming property costs is the example where many prices in Tesco Enniskillen are cheaper than Tesco Cavan, even allowing for the 3.5% VAT difference.

The Tesco Enniskillen store was only built last year at the height of the NI property boom and must have cost them a fortune.

The Tesco Cavan store was built at least 15 years ago (maybe a good deal earlier) and has had barely more than a lick of paint, (and new Tesco signs to replace the old Quinnsworth ones) since then.

Given that property prices and construction costs are pretty much equal on both sides of the border (both pre- and post-credit crunch) I can't see how rents could differ THAT much?
 
Its going to effect my job mainly, I works as a QS, I work for one of the big 5 contractors. It seem to me that the trades people are changing there atitudes towards work and the rates they are willing to work for, I really feel its a great thing. It will put manners and perspective in the foolish minds of many. My job is as secure as it can be, we have secured enough work for the next two years, hopfully we(ireland) will be on the way to recovery by then.

It will also mean that I should be able to afford a home in my prefered area, I would say there is another 20% to come of the house prices

Joejoe
 

Rumours abound that a certain one of these top 5 Contractors is in trouble, obviously I don't think Moderator will allow mention of which one for obvious reasons, suffice to say that the rumour mill around Dublin has been gathering pace for some time now about a certain contractor in major trouble!!!
 
My boyfriend works in recruitment, and he had thought that no one would get fired, as 'they're not that type of company'.
There was a meeting recently, with culling of employees.
There were also quite a few other measures taken to increase profitability, all of which have large impact on employees (I can't mention what, in case it identifies the company.)
Nicola
 

Good Point its amazing how during the boom we preceived security due to working in what we thought was a vey secure company and having X years experience or a certain professional status, I was a professional with a large Contractor whom I thought was immune to the downturn I was let go earlier in year! , I know of a number of friends in Architectural firms who have told me about big culls recently with 10-20 members of staff being let go, A friend of mine after many years chopping and changing careers is ready to start his apprenticeship as a solicitor -guess what he can't get a job for love or money -Tough times!
 
I tried to stay ahead of the recession. 1 year ago i put my cv out and for the 1st time ever in my career I did not have an interview within a week. i had always had no trouble, in const since 1999. At this point I decided to emigrate before the choice may not have been mine.

i have not looked back and am in a healthy market here in Qld Aus wher my job options on arrival were just like 1999. Im living a better life than ever at home and am much happier.

There is a recession over the horizon here but at least I am not in the middle of One and Qld has much further to go and massive "lifestyle" immigration than Dublin had. Hey everything is cheaper her too and current wages same as home.
Plus its 23 deg by day in the "dead" of Winter .
 
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