This article is from page 29 of the 2008-07-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 29 JPG
THERE are almost 1,000 more peo- ple signing on the dole in the mid- west now than there were in the eco- nomic slump of 1985.
The region has seen a jump of al- most 5,000 in numbers signing on the dole in the last 12 months.
The latest figures from the Cen- tral Statistics Office to the end of last month show there are 19,537, in comparison with 14,559 in June of last year.
Despite reassurances that the cur- rent slow-down is nothing like the bleak economic outlook which Ire- land faced in the ‘80s, that number 1s higher than for June 1985 when there were 18,629 signing on.
Between January and June 2008,
Clare suffered the loss of 463 jobs, three per cent of the national total.
The losses put Clare in the mid- range on the redundancy scale, with counties such as Kerry and Mayo registering 383 and 295 job losses respectively. Neighbouring Limerick suffered a higher toll, with the loss of 916 jobs.
What shocked many were the high- profile companies who announced redundancies, ceased trading or had to impose short-time working. Some of the cuts have yet to be counted, with 57 workers at the Shannon based company Avocent to go and 15 jobs lost in north Clare with fears that German company Stubben Ltd may cease manufacturing at it’s En- nistymon factory.
In a double blow to Ennistymon,
the town’s largest employer, Data Display, confirmed that they had to have workers on a four day week for a period to avoid letting staff go. The factory employs 250.
Three weeks earlier, the closure of Shannon-based technology company Buffalo Technology Ireland was an- nounced with 48 job losses. This was closely followed by Kiely’s Electri- cal, with a further five jobs being axed.
Shannon based interior fit-out busi- ness Ashcoin, which employed 100 people, also ceased trading in the ETS meslenieee