… There may be some employers who might have been almost relieved to hear it if things were slowing down somewhat on the recruitment front. For over 10 years now they’ve had to scramble to find staff in certain sectors with some HR departments providing a virtual “fire brigade” service in dealing with staff turnover. The [disappointing] news for those companies is that no real slow-down appears to be here just yet anyway. And there will be those who’ll point out that for commentators as dependent on recruitment as we are to be stating otherwise would be like turkeys voting for Christmas.
So fair enough, not all areas are still booming. There’s been talk locally for 6 months now about some construction crews running out of work and houses not selling. But that also used be the case during bad weather spells even three and four years ago.
You can only agree with those who say it’s dangerously possible for us to simply talk ourselves into a slump. And there’s never been any substitute for just getting on with the small things that you can do individually to make yourself, your business or your employer’s business more competitive and viable for the future. Put simply, that’s how business here pulled itself out of the doldrums to start with. Diversifying where it needed, investing where it needed, educating, training and placing a strong emphasis on productivity. So really nothing has changed. That was all needed as we entered the tiger years and that’s what’s still needed now – less talk and more do.
Certainly anyone who has driven around any of the main midlands towns in the past 6 months and seen the levels of activity going on must have great difficulty believing there’s any kind of economic struggle. Portlaoise is like one big building site, likewise Athlone while Longford, Tullamore and Mullingar town centres are now almost impossible to find parking on any day of the week. There is at worst a “readjustment” of things, possibly with emphasis shifting from one sector to another, but definitely (and it must be said, thankfully) no slump.