The industry lobbying group argued exposed sectors of the economy continued to come under severe global competitive pressure, while higher domestic costs in electricity, gas, local authority, waste, water and environmental charges were undermining Ireland’s overall competitive position.
Patricia Callan, director of the SFA, highlighted the loss of over 7,000 jobs in the other services sector and the equally high figure for manufacturing.
“If this decline in competitiveness persists, a lagged response in terms of more significant loss of employment in these sectors will occur,” she argued.
She estimated Ireland had experienced cumulative job losses of 150,000 since 2000, with the 2006 figure of 23,684 jobs representing an increase of 2.3 per cent on redundancies in the previous year.
Callan described the 7,425 jobs lost in other services, representing 31 per cent of all redundancies, as a “significant warning signal as our economy has become too dependent on domestic demand in recent years”.
Comparison by region showed that over 40 per cent of all jobs lost in 2006 were in Dublin, followed by Cork (2,869), Galway (1,287), Limerick (1,114) and Donegal (984).
She described the loss of jobs in regional areas like Donegal as “particularly concerning” as they were unlikely to be easily replaced.
Men made up nearly 60 per cent of job losses, while women accounted for the balance of 41 per cent.
Callan argued it was also important to prepare more businesses to become export driven as exports had been falling in the past few years.
She claimed “wage rates are outstripping productivity growth and are far in excess of other ‘eurozone’ countries. This is unsustainable in the long-term.”
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