The paper also says that Oracle is planning to cut up to 1,000 jobs in Europe, according to a French labour union. A note on the website of the CDFT union says it has been informed by the company of plans to cut between 850 and 1,000 in Europe, from a total of 17,000 staff. Around 250 positions will be lost in France, the union claims, just over 15 percent of its French workforce. The apparent move by the software giant comes shortly after the company said it detected signs of improvement in its North American business for its fiscal fourth quarter, but indicated that the business environment in Europe remains challenging. An Oracle spokeswoman declined to comment.

ESB has announced the creation of 3,700 GREEN JOBS. IKEA is holding final rounds of recruitment for the grand opening of its Republic store in July (expect plenty of competition!!).

Around the country there was more job loss misery with news from XILINX & New Oceans Limited in Dublin, Irish Dresden in Limerick, BeoCare & Beru Electronics in Kerry and Agilisys Contact Services in Clare. A total of 300 jobs to be lost with the above announcement with many of jobs lost is very badly affected regions.

Each workshop is limited to 15 places so book now to avoid disappointment – email paul@measurability.ie or via booking for contact us

A recent study indicated that employers are increasingly spying on personal websites like Facebook to find out what workers are doing. By all reports this investigation is legitimate as the Office of the Data Commissioner has warned employees there is little legal protection if they publish this stuff online.

The survey indicated that 83pc of employers surveyed said they monitored Facebook pages to check the validity of absences, while 67pc said they then disciplined staff.

So if you are going to pull a sickie then wrap up in your duvet and watch some Oprah. Remember to say offline.

Job Interviews Ireland

Yes redundancies are coming thick and fast in Ireland. I would point out though that redundancy is a thing we will have to accept as part of the employment landscape. Employers can no longer afford to stand still and employees the same. Both need to be constantly reinventing themselves to stay ahead of the competition.

The survey goes on to indicate that there will be more competition for jobseekers and that employers have said that they are experiencing an increase in the number of CV’s sent in the first 6 months of the year. This is stating the obvious but is in fact very true. Jobseekers need to equip themselves for a competitive job market ensuring that the have impact CV’s to stand out in the crowd and effective interview skills to land the job.

The final point of the article indicated that employees should stay put and ride out the storm. I would not agree with this point so much. You see there are excellent opportunities in a downturn. Yes we read the stories about job loss but we do not read the stories about employers hiring key staff to help them through this tough period. Recession or a downturn can provide plenty of opportunities for companies and individuals if you look for them and more importantly take action. Many companies come out of a downturn in a much better position. Equally individuals can gain in these tough times.

Some years I read an interesting comment in a business book – “there is a recession but I have decided not to take part.” This comment is worth some thought.

This is worrying news and it is probably a worse situation when you consider that alot of workers have returned home particularly polish workers. We posted about this news previously.

On a positive note Pfizer announced a major job investment in Cork with a new R&D facility.

Bear Stearns employees about 150 staff in Dublin across Bear Stearns Bank and Bear Stearns Dublin Development Centre.

This is certainly not good news for the Banking & Finance sector in Ireland ot the Job market in general. This sector is viewed as a key pillar of the jobs market. This is further evidence that the troble in US is rippling to Ireland.

It was reported yesterday that 34,000 banking jobs have been terminated on Wall Street in the last 9 months.