The Director of the Small Firms Association, Avine McNally stated that “the redundancy figures announced today are yet again disappointing, but not surprising.”

"The loss of jobs in the services sector is being compounded significantly by the downturn in consumer spending.  The manufacturing sector shows the loss of 1,935 jobs and given the global pressures and costs associated with doing business in Ireland this sector maintains a worrying downward trend.  It is also evident from the figures that the construction downturn is still having an impact, with the loss of just under 1,500 jobs in the building and civil engineering sector.

Figures also highlight that men are almost twice as likely to be made redundant than females.

In conclusion, McNally said, "Overall the redundancy figures offer no room for comfort for any sector. Ireland cannot afford to keep losing an average of 1,302 jobs a week in 2010, particularly in the context that our ability to create new jobs has been severely damaged by our loss of competitiveness in recent years.  What we need now is decisive action by Government to help the small business sector regain cost-competitiveness; generate confidence in the economy and create the enterprise environment where job losses can be stabilised and created."

Article Published: 05/07/2010