Why is the job situation so poor in Sligo?

TequilaMockingBird

Thirded, as long as Westlife are allowed to come home occasionally!


The point I was making earlier about the Airport/Airlines be crucial was enforced today in Shannon. Avocent Corporation have today announced 57 redundancies in Shannon, they are blaming the loss of the Shannon/Heathrow Aer Lingus route. The guy I know who works there says he would be surprised if the remaining 100 jobs are still there next year.

A further 200 jobs were also lost recently. Scary times. If Shannon are getting hit that hard, its time to stock up on the Lidl beans Sligonians.

starbelgrade

I'm facing the prospect of redundancy at the minute & there are NO jobs in my field in Sligo, even though I've 3 interviews lined up soon in Mayo. Major pain in the arse - I left Dublin (partly) to avoid a 45min commute, now I'm looking at possibly an hours commute (each way). It'd be easier to sell up shop & relocate, but with the housing market as it is, that's a no-no. Catch 22.

il gatto

Very unfortunate to be facing redundancy at this time. For most people the best move would be to stay put in one's job if you don't hate it, but if a move is forced it's different. I've been made redundant before and it's not nice.

starbelgrade

I hear ya. I'm half thinking of waiting for the redundancy to come through, then spend a few months on / off in Dublin on contract & avoid a daily commute (but not a weekend one). I'd probably end up with around the same after tax & would probably only need to work 8-9 months of the year. Not ideal, but it's a better prospect than working in Mayo (no offence to Mayo, of course).

TequilaMockingBird

starbelgrade wrote: »

I hear ya. I'm half thinking of waiting for the redundancy to come through, then spend a few months on / off in Dublin on contract & avoid a daily commute (but not a weekend one). I'd probably end up with around the same after tax & would probably only need to work 8-9 months of the year. Not ideal, but it's a better prospect than working in Mayo (no offence to Mayo, of course).

Good luck with it.

This is what my friend is wondering in Shannon, should he take the reasonable package being offered now, or risk it for another while.

starbelgrade

sueme wrote: »

Good luck with it.

This is what my friend is wondering in Shannon, should he take the reasonable package being offered now, or risk it for another while.

It's a TOUGH call alright. There's no doubt that this country is slowly going down the sh*tter.

DenMan

Hey man, what industry do you work in? Is it just a Sligo thing or will jobs go in your field throughout Ireland. Hope you don't lose your job.

brianthebard

starbelgrade wrote: »

I hear ya. I'm half thinking of waiting for the redundancy to come through, then spend a few months on / off in Dublin on contract & avoid a daily commute (but not a weekend one). I'd probably end up with around the same after tax & would probably only need to work 8-9 months of the year. Not ideal, but it's a better prospect than working in Mayo (no offence to Mayo, of course).

if you did end up working in mayo you could do worse than renting in castlebar.Its a nice town fairly cheap afaik and as many or more facilities(actually definitely more!)than sligo.

The Werewolf

I believe that the only thing we (as citizens of this fair town) can really do now is to tighten purse strings as much as we can. It is my belief that places like Sligo are going to bear the brunt of the, let's call it a 'recession' for want of a better word. It appears to me that there simply isn't any new business to attract to Sligo at the moment. Sure, we could reroute traffic this way and that, making it a bit easier to get into the town from the surrounding area but an major infrastructural work is bound to be put on hold now due to the slowdown.

Notice that they're (no names to spare them from blushing and me from a libel action) still pushing for this new Metro North system in Dublin though. I've heard it described by far richer men than me as 'pie in the sky' and 'another vanity project' and 'a project for a city of fifteen million in a city of one and a half'. Estimates for this started out at €2billion but now some sources have gone live on air and said closer to €10billion.

Where's this going? I hear you ask. Well, since the 'powers that be' have decided to go ahead with this project and to shelve the northern part of the Western Rail Corridor, and potentially open up an entire third of the country, it just brings one question to mind. Are we in as safe hands as we'd like to think we are?

I mean, if the whole North West of the country is to remain without a decent rail system in the 21st century along with everything else we're doing without, on top of being at the bottom of the big boys' Christmas lists when it came to the National Development Plan, I'm afraid it's not looking too bright for the future either. I hope I'm wrong though. Some big decisions need to be made to save this town and many like it. Problem is now that the Government have already begun to prepare us for the worst by announcing some financial 'measures' to be taken so it looks like we may have to hold on another while for some of those promised upgrades/renewals that as yet have not come to fruition.

In a nutshell, I believe that Sligo in it's current situation has some really rough economic storms to weather and I'm afraid that when the proverbial sh*t hits the proverbial fan, ministerial attention will be focused on the bigger population centers. And therein lies the rub. Even if you do get a job outside Sligo at this stage, it's only a matter of time before the company you work for then is (shall we say?) 'threatened' and you being a newbie will be the most 'threatened. My best advice for the lower income people out there is to grab a job in a supermarket or bargain store now if there are any to be had because these are the places that will keep ticking after the bubble truly bursts.

And yes. Stock the hell up on Lidl beans, but remember, dried goods will be easier to carry around once the bank has foreclosed on you house.

il gatto

The re-routing traffic thing was just a tangent. It palls into significance compared to the Western Rail Corridor being shelved after Claremorris (and they only got it to help Galway spread it's economic tentacles).
The Rail Corridor is the only project in the west of Ireland to be implemented under "Transport 21" and therefore the only major project in the west, full stop.
As such, it represents a paltry 0.5% of the T21 budget. Dublin (admittedly with a massive population and it's own traffic problems) has 14 projects on the go.
When you see the figures and calculate how small the piece of funding required to have brought the rail link to Sligo would've been, it makes you wonder (yet again) what our T.D.s did in regards this. As far as i remember they got Seamus Brennan to turn up at Tubbercurry railway station and give a speech and cut a metaphorical (and maybe literal) ribbon on the commencement of the project. Then the funding was pulled and.........silence. Who would've thought? Our local representatives, especially Fianna Fail ones (for it is they who wield the power and have done for most of the last two decades) have done nothing. Their own interests and the interests of the party apple-cart have come first again.

starbelgrade

Hey man, what industry do you work in? Is it just a Sligo thing or will jobs go in your field throughout Ireland. Hope you don't lose your job.

I work in the professional services end of the construction industry. It seems Sligo's bearing the brunt of it as there's still a fair bit of work throughout the country - the cities are all doing well with commercial developments continuing.

if you did end up working in mayo you could do worse than renting in castlebar.Its a nice town fairly cheap afaik and as many or more facilities(actually definitely more!)than sligo.

Castlebar's nice alright, but I just bought a house here & even if I wanted to sell up & move on, it's not a good time for doing so.

The Werewolf

Well put Il Gato. I don't understand why the WRC has been shelved, Even less now that you have mentioned the size of the 'slice of pie' that it would have cost. T21 my butt. Should have been E21 (exclusion) since such a large proportion of the population are still bound to a 'single-destination' rail system where all roads (and railways' lead to Dublin. The WRC and other means of access to the North West as a whole need to be implemented, otherwise we will end up being last on the Governmental Christmas List when the does bounce back. I wonder if it will be as bad as the 80's again.

starbelgrade

The Werewolf wrote: »

I wonder if it will be as bad as the 80's again.

Listening to the radio - especially RTE, it sounds awfully like it is.

brianthebard

starbelgrade wrote: »

Listening to the radio - especially RTE, it sounds awfully like it is.

I dunno if they can go back to the days of 65% income tax. I am worried that free fees will be taken away soon. Student organisations will probably have a fight on their hands.

Xiney

...time to move back to Canada.

*cuts and runs*

il gatto

There might not be as much huddling around candles and hand me down clothes, but the look at the amount of personal debt people have. Nobody had a house that cost them the equilalent of ten years solid wages. Four or five years maybe and with high interest, but it's insane how it's gone.
Might not be as much obvious poverty, but there will be alot more foreclosing and bankruptcy. On the surface things might look fine, but alot of people will have their personal finances razed to the ground. People bit off more than they could chew. The economists are saying people have talked themselves into a recession. I say most people talked themselves into a boom which was selective in who was benefitting from it.
An economy built on construction and which lets it's export market slide is going to take a nose-dive every time.
Recirculated money is not creating wealth, it's redistributing it and usually into the pocket of a select few.