Michelin, Gallaghers etc - lots of bad economic news!

tara747

motorguy wrote: »

I didnt say manufacturing specifically - as i've already said whilst this is terrible for those directly and indirectly affected, the job market itself is quite bouyant and there are many large firms who have come here and are continuing to come here.

Manufacturing isnt the force it once was in northern ireland, but it has been replaced. You only have to look at the relative decline of H&W and ship building and the Titanic Quarter area for evidence of that - a thriving business park now involving many multinational companies.

I'm sorry that some of those who have lost their jobs may not get jobs of equivalent financial stature, however those who are good and committed will most likely go on to build other careers.



You only have to look at the big employers here in NI to see thats simply not true.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/top-100-companies/

You're well down the list before you even see Call Centres registering in that list.

However i wouldnt be so quick to dismiss call centres as "minimum wage" jobs. Granted starting salaries arent that great, however there are loads of opportunities for progression. My wife for example over the last 20 years has moved from a call centre agent right through to a Senior Contact Centre Manager for one of those top 20 companies with some 1,200 staff under her and a salary to match.

My son also, started in a part time job in a call centre when studying at Uni and that experience has got him in to Santander in their belfast head office on a very decent starting salary, and with many career paths open to him.

Call centre IT work was very good to me for ten years or so there, and i used it to springboard into a different career direction.

Finally, call centres dont "just" bring telephony work.

Consider GEM, who were bought out by Concentrix back in 2011. Concentrix have now expanded the business to include business support and software development. They've also bought the Maysfield leisure centre site and plan to develop 130,000 sq ft of office space on it for further expansion into software development.

Likewise - a lot of the big banks consider call centre work as the entry point into their organisations and then promote from within.

Oh - and finally - the factory isnt due to close to 2018 - thats 3 years away. Granted i am sure it will ramp down over that time, but If i were there i'd be using that time wisely to retrain with new skills or courses, or reducing my outgoings if they were high to adjust to perhaps having to take a lesser paid job.

Yes, no doubt that last point will be uppermost in the employees' minds, and it's clear that their (understandable) reduction in spending will hurt the local economy.

I'm pleased that you, your wife and son are doing well. However, there's no getting away from the fact that private sector salaries are well below public sector salaries in NI.

With the public sector (which typically employs a large number of graduates) shrinking, and the loss of many well-paid private sector jobs recently, this doesn't bode well for the economy at all.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-30114530

---

NI earnings fall as UK average rises


By John Campbell BBC News NI Economics & Business Editor

• 19 November 2014
• From the section Northern Ireland

The earnings of a typical full-time employee in Northern Ireland fell by 1.4% this year, a government survey has suggested.
In comparison, a typical full-time employee in the UK as a whole saw their wages rise by 0.1%, a figure still well below the rate of inflation.
A typical full-time worker in Northern Ireland earned about £24,000, compared to just under £27,000 across the UK.
The details are contained in the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.
The UK-wide survey of employers is based on a 1% sample of employee jobs.


It is drawn from HM Revenue and Customs' Pay As You Earn (PAYE) records.
Same job

A typical full-time employee in Northern Ireland has the lowest gross weekly earnings across the UK regions.
The West Midlands was the only other region to experience a decline in full-time earnings over the year.
This is the second year in a row that a typical full-time employee in Northern Ireland has seen wages fall.
The number of people in work has been growing over the last year. In Northern Ireland, full-time jobs increased by 2.9%.
As people who have just entered the workforce tend to be on lower wages, the survey also looks at full-time employees who had been in the same job for at least a year.
Workers in that category saw their annual earnings grow by 0.3%, which is still below the rate of inflation.
The survey also suggests that 10% of full-time employees earned more than £43,200 a year, while 10% earned less than £13,200.
Sector gap

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland's public sector full-time earnings continued to be significantly higher than in the private sector - the difference is just over 41%.
Women in particular benefit in the public sector, earning 68% more than their private sector counterparts.
The public/private sector gap is much more marked than in the UK overall, where public sector full-time earnings were 17% higher than in the private sector.
However, the statisticians who compiled the report cautioned that some of the difference between the public and private sector figures were likely due to differences in the composition of the respective workforces.
Many of the lowest paid occupations, such as hospitality and retail, exist almost exclusively in the private sector, while in the public sector there is a larger proportion of graduate-level and professional occupations.
Gender trends

The figures also suggest a continuing trend of full-time female workers in Northern Ireland earning more than their male counterparts.
In 2012, the female/male hourly earnings ratio reached parity; in 2013 it tipped slightly in favour of women, and that trend has continued.
Typical female full-time hourly earnings excluding overtime were 103.2% of male earnings in 2014, compared to 101.5% a year earlier.
Full-time male earnings in Northern Ireland continued to be the lowest of any UK region.
However, full-time female earnings were fourth highest amongst the regions, with only women in London, the South East and Scotland earning more.

saverbuyer

The "top 100" list you link to is selected by John Simpson. I wouldn't say it's a factual list. Still it's interesting.


Invest NI aren't really fans of publishing average salary of their jobs promoted. I know in previous years, the majority if jobs promoted were based in "contact centers" and the majority of these were below the NI Industry average.


Last year, the average salary for all Invest promoted jobs was 19.5k.




Call center jobs are on the whole pretty poorly paid but as with everything, there's potential there for the few who can add a bit of value.

Mistral001

The above is interesting as it shows that in NI pay is completely different form that in rest of UK or is that just different from what the national media seem to portray. The comparisons between private and public are different to those in rest of UK as far as I can see. I am also surprised to see that that the female average pay is higher than that of males in NI.

I often think the national media is very London-centred. They often quote some jobs as being very low paid whereas here in NI the same jobs are regarded as quite good well-paid jobs to have.

qwert_yuiop

I'd like to see a comparison in expenses across the regions. Rent in London is colossal for instance, and transport is not cheap either if you're forced to commute. A low wage in NI is possibly not as bad as it seems. Any way to find out?

saverbuyer

qwert_yuiop wrote: »

I'd like to see a comparison in expenses across the regions. Rent in London is colossal for instance, and transport is not cheap either if you're forced to commute. A low wage in NI is possibly not as bad as it seems. Any way to find out?

Look at disposable income instead?

qwert_yuiop

Is that on it?

saverbuyer

qwert_yuiop wrote: »

Is that on it?

I'm not sure. I was putting it forward as a better measure when comparing geographical regions. I'm not even sure if it works?

saverbuyer

http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/HTMLDocs/dvc168/index.html

qwert_yuiop

saverbuyer wrote: »

http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/HTMLDocs/dvc168/index.html

Thank you. Out of date already I'm afraid, though - Aberdeen looks good on that, but they're having a recession. Some areas of NI are doing better than others, not surprisingly.

Cheshire and North Yorkshire looking good as usual. Seems hard to believe that no area of Scotland is in the lower band.

saverbuyer

qwert_yuiop wrote: »

Thank you. Out of date already I'm afraid, though - Aberdeen looks good on that, but they're having a recession. Some areas of NI are doing better than others, not surprisingly.

We've probably moved further to the right of the graft.


Still, nothing to worry about, those 40k manufacturing jobs can be replaced with 14k "contact centre" ones.