UK Jobs going to Eastern Europe

bendix

If the companies are not British (Dell, Indesit etc) then it's hardly fair to say they are British jobs going overseas.

If you use your logic, then those jobs shouldnt have been in the UK in the first place.

Personally, I have no philosophical problem with it. A company's primary responsibility is to maximise returns for its shareholders. If that means moving jobs overseas to cheaper locations, so be it. In a previous job, I worked on a project which meant establishing an offshore shared services facility in the Philippines - in the end, 600 secretarial, design and back-office staff were hired there at a fifth of what they would have cost in home offices in the UK, US, Hong Kong, Sydney etc.

It's a tough world out there, but people need to understand that a job is no longer a right. It has to be earned and it has to deliver value, because there are hundreds of millions of people in the global economy hungry for it.

Dog eat dog.

vivatifosi

I agree bendix. The UK has been attracting a large amount of Inward Investment for decades. This is in part due to the fact we speak English, partially due to the draw of London as a world-leading financial centre, partially due to previously more benign conditions that made it easier to set up, recruit and lay-off staff, along with a whole host of other more company specific reasons.

In its report on Inward Investment for 2007/2008, the FCO discussed Foreign Direct Investment into the UK thus:

This performance confirms the UK’s continuing position
as number one in Europe and second globally only to
the USA in attracting international investment. This in
the year where the latest UNCTAD figures confirmed the
UK’s FDI stock to be over US$1 trillion, some 9.4 per
cent of the global total. (see http://www.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/pdf/4098751/ukti-inward-invest-rep07)

If, as a country, we have led inward investment over many years, then equally we should expect that over time some of those jobs will be sent to other locations as and when it makes business sense to do so.

My greatest concern at the moment is that a highly inward-looking party, such as UKIP or the BNP gains power and fails to understand the impact of these global trading links on the UK economy.

lostinrates

I agree too: I was surprised tht the thing that got protests starting was the loss of ''British jobs'' in a French company!

Cadbury's moing jobs from Bristol to Poland would have been a more valid protest. I also hold Cadbury have the right to do so. I, accordingly have the right to make no impact whatsoever in their sales figures in my miniscule protest of no longer eating Cadburys/Green and Black chocolate. Its a small but sincere protest.

Thrugelmir

My original post was a question about how many jobs are being lost forever. In the current difficult economic climate.

Jobs did indeed move to China from the mid 90's. Due to the boom in financial services and increase in house wealth. New jobs were created in the UK.

It mustn't be forgotten that around 50% of all new jobs were created in the Public Sector in this time.

When the economy picks up where are the news going to be created? Retail banking is going through a period of contraction. House buying and selling activity is never going to reach the peaks since in recent years. The retail sector will be hit as disposable income is reduced. Some companies will increase their staffing levels as sales and production pick up again.

vivatifosi

Thrugelmir wrote: »

My original post was a question about how many jobs are being lost forever. In the current difficult economic climate.
.....

When the economy picks up where are the news going to be created?

I do think that jobs will filter back from abroad at some point. When I was researching companies moving here, what I noticed over the past few years is that I was starting to see the Korean chaebols (conglomerates) in the late 90s, followed by the Asian tigers in the early 2000s and more recently, a lot more inward investment here from the likes of China. So while jobs will go to those countries, some will also come here from them.

I don't however think that there is an easy answer as to where the new jobs are going to come from because there is nothing obvious on the horizon (for example, in some respect the loss of banking jobs at the end of the 80s/early 90s was offset by the growth of the IT industry, after which banking came back, big time). That I do think is a big problem, at least for the next year or two while the economy sorts itself out.

Harry_Powell

I was expecting a viewpoint from dervish on this subject and was surprised that he hadn't commented. Then I noticed that he'd been PPR'd. I also saw a reference to mewbie getting PPR'd but this seems to have been rescinded.

What's been going on?

el_gringo_3

chopperharris wrote: »

why shouldnt these jobs go overseas , companies have no loyalites , and neither has the consumer.

What makes it harder for the UK to compete is this very attitude of having no loyalty.

I have German friends that have never and will never drive a car made outside of Germany, and will even buy say, a bag of Haribo over similar items, regardless of price difference, because its 'German'. I understand the Yanks are the same.

ninky_2

some sectors aren't so portable. mine being one of them. i don't think we are going to start employing eastern europeans to make tv shows but i could be wrong.....as a very culturally specific sector it's hard for those from overseas to understand the nuances involved even if they speak the lingo.

ninky_2

el_gringo wrote: »

What makes it harder for the UK to compete is this very attitude of having no loyalty.

I have German friends that have never and will never drive a car made outside of Germany, and will even buy say, a bag of Haribo over similar items, regardless of price difference, because its 'German'. I understand the Yanks are the same.

kiwis are very loyal to their own products too.

i vaguely remember some buy british campaigns in the 1970s but these seemed to have died out now. i guess the "carbon footprint" is likely to have a greater impact on us less jingoistic brits. i turn my nose up as new world wines in favour of french / european for this very reason.

bendix

You work for the BBC, ninky?

NOW, it all makes sense ;-)