A Changed Economy and a Changed World
The cost of high value jobs in Ireland had already run away from reality five years ago as demand for high level and scarce technically qualified professionals outstripped supply. Added to this was the rising cost of living in Ireland largely led by an ever increasing property bubble.
In my own experience as a recruiter in the mid nineties, a very good engineer could expect a salary in the low to middle twenties, on average though they were generally in the late teens to early twenties. Five years later these figures had blow out of all proportion. Granted we had changed currency to the Euro but this did not account for an almost doubling, if not in general; trebling in average wages. Something was wrong in the economy as we lost hold of what had brought jobs and prosperity to Ireland in the first instance.
We lost our competitive edge and the jobs; slowly at first, with companies such as fruit of the loom- closed and moved to low cost manufacturing centers such as Mexico and India. We fooled outselves that these were low tech jobs and that this couldnt happen with the high tech high value jobs that we were now a knowledge based economy.
Within a matter of years Dell closed, 7000 direct jobs and almost 15,000 indirect jobs were lost in one fell swoop. Pfizer trembled and more plants were closed, Motorola closed and soon an epidemic was underway. The demand for higher wages to support an economy awash with credit was killing jobs.
Yesterdays budget is the harshest in memory. It is perhaps only the start of what we need to bring is back from the brink.
Churchill said after the Battle of El Alamein, “now this is not the end,it is not even the begining of the end, but it is perhaps, the end of the begining”.
