7,000 net jobs in multinational sector, but domestic sector sees rise in unemployment in 2011

More than 13,000 jobs were created by multinational companies in Ireland in 2011, but 6,000 jobs were lost in the same sector, leaving a net increase of 7,000. This represents an increase of 20% of the number of jobs created by IDA-backed companies in 2010 and the best net job increase for the past decade.

Among the companies creating new jobs were social media, IT, manufacturing, financial services and pharma companies. These included Twitter, Paypal, Intel, IBM, Coca-Cola and Pfizer.

An estimated 145,000 people are employed by companies which were attracted to Ireland by the IDA Ireland and nearly 150 FDI investments were made in this country last year. 61 were multinational companies investing in Ireland for the first time.

The latest figures from the CSO show that the number of people signing on to the Live Register fell by 0.5 per cent over 2011 with 434,784 people signing on in December, matching the figure for April 2011. There was a slight decrease in the standardised unemployment rate by 0.1% to 14.3%. This represents an increase of 0.5% over the 2010 rate when the average rate during the year was 13.7%.

The number of longterm unemployed and on the live register continued to grow during 2011, with the number of long term claimants on the Live Register increasing by 16.4 per cent.

Prospects for Professionals Positive in 2012?

A survey of over 500 HR professionals by Morgan McKinley has shown that one in five professional people expect take-home pay to increase over the course of 2012. The study covered HR and other managers working in manufacturing, financial services, IT and professional services, and found that 21 per cent believed salaries in their companies would rise in the coming 12 months. 58 per cent said that they expected their salary to stay at the same level. Amongh those expecting a salary rise the forecasted increase is modest – between one and five per cent.

Only four per cent of managers fear redundancies this reflecting the fact that 47 per cent of managers and professionals had a more positive outlook for their business than at the beginning of last year. 32 per cent saying their opinion had not changed.

Did you use up all of your holidays this Christmas?

Hotels.com surveyed 180 people between 8 and 16 December and of these respondents, over half had at least two to three unusued annual leave days in a year. One out of every four respondents said that they were not permitted to 'carry over' leave days from one leave year to the next, but even among those who can carry days over there is widespread non-uptake of holidays and half of those who said they didn’t use up all their holiday days said they felt “resentful” of that fact.

The reasons cited for not taking all holidays was being too busy at work (38 per cent); just not getting round to it (28 per cent); accidentally being left with too many days as a result of trying to save them up (19 per cent); and 12 per cent said they were afraid to take all their holidays because of pressure at work.