The Irish Labour Market and the Great Recession

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During the recent years, the labour market in Ireland changed significantly. The causes for the fact are the global economic changes and definite transformations in the local social and legal policies. These changes resulted in creating the new situation regarding the position of women in the Irish labour market and migrant workers’ role in this market.

Thus, two main recent changes in the Irish labour market are the increase in recruiting women and migrant workers for different positions.

It is possible to associate the changes in the Irish women’s employment with the social policies and recent tendencies in alternations of the gender roles, and the changes in hiring migrant workers are based on the new rules and laws in the working policies and on opening the borders for the migrant workers from the European Union’s countries which were joined to the union recently.

As a result, the tendencies in hiring more women and migrant workers affected the human resource managers’ approach to the hiring process and influenced the aspects of people resourcing within organisations.

The changes in the Irish labour market are the results of the global economic processes and alternations in definite Irish legal and social policies in relation to the work permits for the migrant workers and in relation to the terms and conditions of the parental leave for women. The increase of the employment numbers is observed in the retail trade, construction, financial services, and health industry.

The change in the perspectives for the female workers is one of the main alternations which influence today the development of the Irish labour market. It is the fact that during the recent years the percentage of those women who are employed and take the positions similar to men’s ones increased greatly. The researchers and economists determine several causes to explain these tendencies.

The first factor is the general changes in the economic sphere of Ireland which can be discussed today as the definite economic stability along with the active economic growth. The economic growth resulted in the expansion of the labour market and creation more work positions.

The work of women is required in more spheres nowadays (Barrett & McGuinness 2012). That is why, women are discussed as equal to men to take the positions which were traditionally considered as men’s ones.

The second factor is the changes in the Irish policies in relation to the maternity leave and the introduction of the parental leave. Several years ago, the main factor which could limit the possibilities of women to take the advantageous positions was the inability of the organisation to hire women because of considering them as dependent on the marital status.

In spite of the fact that the number and age of the women’s children are still significant for the development of the women’s career, the chances to be hired successfully grow. Those women who have children older than 12 years also have more opportunities to take good positions in the Irish companies, and the human resource professionals focus on changing the approach to hiring women (Cassidy 2004).

Today, the problem of the women’s marital status in relation to the Irish labour market is being resolved as in many other European countries. Women became the active participants of the labour market, and their qualifications, education, and professional skills are more important for the contemporary labour market than their status.

The next reason for changing the situation with the women’s employment in Ireland is the new tendencies in the public’s attitude to gender roles. Those jobs which were traditionally discussed as male ones can be successfully done by women who have the appropriate education and qualification (Russell et al. 2009).

The question of the women’s education and competence is more significant today because the rate of low-skilled women remains to be rather high. It is possible to concentrate on the active participation of women in the continuous employment because the attitude of employers to hiring women for the constant positions changed according to the changes in the visions of gender roles and women’s social position in general.

The modern women in Ireland received more economic and social rights to participate in the labour market equally to men. Moreover, if several years ago women have few possibilities to take the positions characterised by high wages and good conditions, today the situation changes, and many women have the access to good working conditions and high-paid positions where the high qualification is required (Vacancy overview 2011 2012).

The women’s access to the employment and the Irish labour market can be discussed with references to the global tendencies to attract more women to be employed because of the definite economic benefits (Russell et al. 2009). Many human resource specialists agree that women are the best workers in offices or in the service industry. However, this statement should be associated with the idea that women as employees are more appropriate for the low-paid professions.

Thus, the problem of the women’s employment discrimination is resolved with references to resolving the questions of the gender equality within the Irish society. It is possible to determine the direct correlation between the increase in rates of the women’s employment and decrease of the professions which were considered as gender oriented (Russell et al. 2009).

It is not popular today to accentuate the differences in gender in relation to the labour because modern women are inclined to take the higher positions, and they are often the main breadwinner within the family. Employers increase the wage for women if they concentrate on the quality of work and the employees’ potential.

Today, it is possible to determine two tendencies in relation to the migrant workers’ participation in the Irish labour market. The first trend is the increase of the number of the migrant workers who are considered as specialists in definite fields. The tendency when high-skilled professionals migrate from the EU countries to work in Ireland is rather new, and it is connected with the fact of increasing the wages and changes in the labour policies for migrants.

The demands for work permits are satisfied more frequently today than it was several years ago. However, the negative aspect of the situation is the growth of the competition between the local and migrant workers who are high-skilled professionals in their spheres (Walsh 2004). This problem is accentuated by many human resource specialists, but it is possible today to respond to the workforce diversity and meet the needs of the organisation according to hiring the specialists.

The most popular vacancies emphasize the demands for the high-skilled professionals in ICT. As a result, many persons from the neighbouring countries and territories are inclined to work in Ireland where the wages are high because of the industry’s quick development.

The next tendency is the growth of the cheap workforce. The low-skilled workers from the EU countries receive more work permits today in comparison with the situation typical for the previous years. There are some changes in the labour policies which influenced the mentioned tendency.

Although the work of migrants is traditionally discussed as the necessary and significant component of the Irish labour market, today the increase of the migrant workers’ flow is more influential, and it is possible to determine the spheres in which there are more low-skilled migrant workers than it was earlier (Quarterly National Household Survey 2012; Walsh 2003).

The human resource specialists work to regulate the situation in the service and building industries because the significant increase of the migrant workers’ flow is observed in these spheres.

The two main changes in the Irish labour market which can be observed recently are the accents on recruiting more women for different positions with references to their education and competence and the high percentage in the employment of migrant workers.

According to the case of women’s employment, such factors as the parental status or age are not influential anymore, and it is possible to speak about overcoming definite social and gender stereotypes under the impact of the global tendencies.

In relation to migrant workers, the open working borders provided more opportunities for hiring more specialists from the EU countries. In spite of the fact the positive results of the situation are obvious for many organisation, the discussion of the competition between local and migrant workers is still urgent.

Reference List

Barrett, A & McGuinness, S 2012, “The Irish labour market and the great recession”, DICE, vol. 10 no. 2, pp. 27-33.

Cassidy, M 2004, “Productivity in Ireland: trends and issues”, Quarterly Bulletin, vol.10 no. 5, pp. 83-106.

Quarterly National Household Survey 2012. Web.

Russell, H, McGinnity, F, Callan, T & Keane, C 2009, A woman’s place: female participation in the Irish labour market. Web.

Vacancy overview 2011 2012. Web.

Walsh, B 2003, “How ‘Live’ is the live register and other puzzles in the Measurement of Unemployment”, Quarterly Economic Commentary, vol. 11 no. 5, pp. 78-86.

Walsh, B 2004, “The transformation of the Irish labour market : 1980-2003”, Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, vol. 33 no. 2, pp. 83-115.

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The Irish Labour Market and the Great Recession

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