Derry Journal: Less than 300 jobs in NW

As much as I poke fun at the DJ (main in regards to Project Kevin (yes I did that on purpose)) there, once in a while, a story that just matters. Today they hit gold.

I used to put the figures up for Limavady, Coleraine and Derry and I might go back to that. It would be interesting to see when the figures were calculated, doing a quick freetext job search on the Job Centre website I got:
Limavady: 19
Londonderry/Derry: 93
Strabane: 11
Coleraine: 44

Coming in at a mildly worrying 167 jobs for the North West based on the major towns and cities.

It's all back to the numbers again, 2500 job losses since 2008 and a 60% increase in workload at the Derry job centre alone. Main attack seems to be pointed at Invest NI who are being asked where the investment is for the area.

My opinion is that it's all back around this demand cycle, the same sort of thing I was talking about with regards to Stream's position last week. You need spending to increase demand, increased demand leads to more services/production requirement which leads to job creation.

Currently it's a stagnated cycle, no one wants to make the first move just yet. Housing hasn't bottomed out just yet, got another year or so I'd say. So no one wants to really spend anything (if they have something to spend, lots of job losses = reduced spending).

Job creation will come in small startups, what can Invest NI do? Plough small amounts of investment over a greater number of people who really need it. The Start A Business Programme is there lying dormant and could just do with a crash machine nearby to get its heartbeat going again.

This time though up the money from a useless £400 to £1000 and people might take INI and themselves a little more seriously. If you can bootstrap something from nothing then go for it, start getting to Open Coffee Derry/Coleraine/Belfast meetings and make contacts, network do anything to get your name out.

The ultimate responsibility for job creation isn't really with government it's down to an individual, a group, a community or a town/city to actually do something. People will take note and people will come. In my honest opinion Invest NI have chased the big companies as they give more credibility to the press releases that are put out, but right now it's a level playing field and I think the small mobile intelligent units might actually pull through on this one, it's all down to the ability to change.

Good luck everyone, see you on the other side.