Move aside Sir Reg! Even the News Of The World has worked it out.

Even the News Of The World (something I've never read, to this day) has worked out there's an unemployment problem.

Limavady even gets it's own big pin in a big map and the TUC finish it off nicely with a quote.

"TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "With school and college leavers soon starting to look for work, our unemployment crisis will get even bigger." "

Finding jobs on Twitter.

A number of Northern Ireland recruitment agencies are listing thier jobs on Twitter. Makes perfect sense to me. Either search on the #job tag or have a look at:

• Grafton Recruitment
• Rhiada Resourcing

I'm sure there's a lot more...

Top Ten Hot Career Topics

Definately worth a look from ereleases.

http://www.ereleases.com/pr/study-top-ten-hot-career-trends-college-graduates-20903

Data Mining is up there, it's going to get more important as the next few years go on. There's way too much data kicking about from all this social tomfoolery.

Derry dole queue figures on the rise.

They are now equal to Limavady with 6.1% of the borough registered as unemployed. Strabane is a little behind at 6.0%. All this has really done is increase the mudslinging MP's have directed at the Executive, blaming them for not doing enough to avert something that couldn't really be averted.

BBC News run a little story on Limavady

Now that unemployment is now at 6.1% in Limavady (or as they like to put it, the highest in Northern Ireland).

The report does play heavily on the Seagate closure but fails to mention that from the 900 made redundant, not all of them were from Limavady. Some were from Derry, some Coleraine, some commuted in from Donegal. Seagate is not single handedly responsible for Limavady's track record.

Construction was a key area and as farming declined construction blossomed. The knock on effect was felt as tilers, estate agents and other related industries gained. Then it stopped and then knock on went into reverse. The subsequent knock on from that, shops went into decline and started to close. Trading was down.

The BBC stats don't paint a pretty picture:

• 22,000 people of a working age in the borough.
• 6.1% unemployed.
• 23.6% of redundancies were in Limavady (but does not say how many of that 23.6% are resident in the borough).
• 1,348 are currently looking for work compared to 611 a year ago.
  

For eagle eyed readers of this blog you'll know from this morning that there are 12 jobs listed for Limavady. Paul Beattie does make a good point that Limavady is a good place for doing business, because it is. There is a very good training background in Limavady that does a very good job in providing quality training for the essential skills required.

I have a love/hate with this article. It does highlight the positives about Limavady but that's outweighed by the "isn't ever so slightly crap at the moment" attitude of the reporter.

Currently the unemployed need some sense of honour and sense of worth (I know exactly what it's like because I've been there twice over the last three years). Biggest failing in all of this I see is the reliance on the job market to pick up, some experts are not expecting this until a potential peak at the end of 2010. The initiative has to come from you, yourself.

If you have an idea then go for it. Whether it be an online venture or what, a shop, a home based business. Big investment coming in takes time. Putting time aside to help rural startups is something that's never addressed. Rest assured that Invest NI will not give you money for the Start A Business Programme but you might get valuable support.

If you are stuck for an idea, well there's over 1000 listed on OneForTen. It was the very reason I put the site together in the first place. I can't do every idea that's listed so it makes sense to distribute them to people who can. You have nothing to lose, go have a look :)

For the full BBC article, that's online here.

Twitter Job Search

It's not limited to jobs at Twitter, it's just a good search of jobs posted on Twitter.

Handy and here.

8over8 to invest £3m in Derry

Some good news for the North West

8over8, the Derry -based software development company, is to invest almost £3 million to bolster its commercial management, software development resource and marketing initiatives to double international sales.

Full story on the Derry Journal.

NI faring best of UK regions in recession

From rte.ie

He says [PwC's chief economist Philip McDonagh] that in January figures for unemployment in Northern Ireland was 5%, less than the UK rate and significantly lower that the jobless rate in the Republic.

The report says that the sterling/euro exchange rate continues to make Northern Ireland an attractive destination for inward investment, Irish shoppers and holidaymakers.

Good news some would say, but the figures don't look good in the Derry/Strabane/Limavady/Coleraine areas, with the North West averaging with unemployment at 5.6%.

The Graduate warning

The numbers released today didn't make good listening. In the region of 300,000 graduates will enter the job market in the summer. The employers state that there are no jobs for them.

Did someone say this was going to be over soon?

The Money Programme: James Caan on Jobs

Quite possibly the best programme that's been on all week in regards to the current climate. There was one golden nugget in there to be noted: "Print and post your CV, do not email it"

If you missed it you can still watch it on the BBC iPlayer.

The brutal fact of the matter is something that Bryan Roberts of Planet Retail said, "these companies aren't charities, they are there soley to make profits for their shareholders".

In pretty much any restructure when times hit hard it's rent and then staff, the big numbers, that get reviewed first.

Yet more call centre jobs on the way...

610 new jobs for Newry to come from Teleperformance in France. Gem are also to create another 900 jobs over the next three years (and a little help of £5.5M from Invest NI), their current offices are in Belfast and Londonderry but there's no actual announcement as to where these jobs will be.

Interesting observation that as Stream are in rumour central about shedding jobs, yet other call centres are on the up?

Article from the Guardian here.

Sir Reg Empey: "Helping people back to work is number one priority"

"I am focused on ensuring that training, aimed at providing the skills required to compete for employment, is there for anyone who wishes to avail of it. Programmes like Steps to Work, Pathways and the new all-age apprenticeship provision, ApprenticeshipsNI, have been introduced to equip people with the necessary skills for employment."

From what I can gather on the ground (certainly in Limavady) the only thing Steps To Work is really offering is Essential Skills training, not a bad thing to have at the end of the day, though my main concern is that a number of employers would have no idea what Essential Skills really are. I see the same problem as the introduction of the BTeC's in the late 80's, employers had no idea what they were and promptly ignored them. Ultimately Sir Reg, with all good intentions, is creating a baseline skill level for jobs that don't exist.

If you look at the IT sector in Northern Ireland if you don't have a degree of some form then you have no real chance of getting anywhere. Right now, if you have grade C or above GCSE's then you have a option to do a two year Access course to then enable you to complete a three year degree. So it takes five years to make yourself employable in the IT sector, even after all that you have the 100:1 ratio of applicants to job to contend with.

It says something when a skilled, experienced worker has to say on public television that he applied for a job as a cleaner and didn't get it because he wasn't qualified or that 350 people apply for one driving job in Coleraine. Enabling the training of skills is one thing but it doesn't solve the immediate problem, while sales are down within companies the requirement for labour will remain low. It's only in the last two years that having a GCSE actually mattered and now the ratio of applications to jobs is so disproportional employers can cherry pick, even at the manual labour opportunities, on who they want to speak to.

It was something that I noticed during the last Limavady jobs fair, employers were just happy to offer the very least they could, remember they are going through the cashflow problems too. So in order for them to keep costs down the labour costs will be as low as possible. The next two years or so will be about retaining the bottom line. This is all breadcrumbs under the table at the moment and there's no real sign of it getting better.

There's been much emphasis on jobs but no emphasis on creating microbusinesses, self employment, entreprenuership or anything like that. What is needed in Limavady right now is discussion, "what does Limavady need?", and a clue it's not construction or house building. How about a service based business, here's 105 ideas to get you started (it's an old link but still relevant), if you are into IT and computer programming then have a look at the jobs that people need doing. There seriously needs to be a shift in thinking, the enterprise agencies should be bunged with people wanting to start up but as there's financial benefit to sticking your neck on the line, it's actually easier to claim. I just wish Invest NI would actually invest in NI. If they kick started the Start A Business Programme with a decent startup grant of £1000 and measured the output of each startup perhaps things would start to change. If you can bootstrap a business from nothing then that's great but it's hard work.

Helping people back to work is number one priority - N. Ireland Minister Empey
and
Empey announces additional support in respect to economic downturn in Northern Ireland

BBC Spotlight Programme: How Safe Is Your Job?

First shown on BBC1 NI last night, you can watch it again on BBC iPlayer. There was a segment on Limavady and the plight of the jobless in the area.

It says something when 350 people go for one job in Coleraine. A good programme on the whole but it did gloss over some of the details. When there's an upturn in the economy don't expect the job situation to instantly improve, companies are very nervous about spending now.

Rush Hall Care Home creates 70 new jobs in Limavady

Sort of a "news just in". Belfast Telegraph reports of 70 new jobs at the Rush Hall Care Home.

Full story here.

As the restaurants fall the fast food nation gains....

As consumers pull on their spending, especially eating out in expensive restaurants, the Belfast Telegraph report on the poor fate of Paul and Jeannie Rankin. Though trying to sell as much assets as possible is still hasn't stopped them having to arrange an IVF to pay outstanding VAT and PAYE.

It's a shame to watch this happen, to any business, and with the additional downside that if you choose to be a TV celeb chef then you will be media hounded for eternity. Paul and Jeannie's plight is not just theirs as Anthony Warrel Thompson is personally funding the operation of his restaurant just to keep it going.

So while the TV celebs are declining, the fast foodies are gaining. Subway, KFC and Domino's are creating a large number of jobs to serve the rising demand for fast food. Eating in is the new eating out. Even Starbucks reacted by releasing an instant coffee, whether Lord Mandelson drinks it will be another matter.

Job Update: 17/02/2009

Total jobs listed: 1358
Total jobs for Limavady: 18 (1.32% an increase of 0.05%)

To view the Limavady opportunities click here.