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NEARLY ONE THIRD of small businesses are planning to recruit more staff before the end of the year, but almost half expect their wage bill to rise.
The latest Small Firms Association (SFA) jobs sentiment survey has revealed 30 per cent of businesses were planning to increase employee numbers by the New Year.
Seven per cent of surveyed small firms expected they would need to cut staff, while the remaining 63 per cent thought there would be no change in their workforce.
But the survey, released today, said 45 per cent of respondents forecast their pay bills would go up, with only two per cent predicting a drop in labour costs.
The survey also found:
27 per cent of respondents were planning to increase permanent staff in the last six months of year
29 per cent expected to recruit temporary staff
53 per cent thought their pay bill would stay the same
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Jobs, labour costs on the up
The latest figures come as Ireland’s official jobless rate hit a five-year low of 11.5 per cent this month and the economy continued showing the green shoots of recovery.
SFA director Patricia Callan said while some sectors like hospitality were performing well, others continued to struggle.
Small Firms Association director Patricia Callan with former Minister of State for Small Business John Perry. Mark Stedman / Photocall Ireland
Mark Stedman / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland
“It’s a recovery – people are getting back on their feet – but it’s still fragile,” she told TheJournal.ie
She said no new taxes should be introduced that further added to rising labour costs and discouraged businesses from hiring more staff.
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Good news but job creation appears to be linked very much to FDI and resultant spin off which in turn is linked to a dodgy corporate tax regime (transfer pricing / double Irish etc) where multinationals are laundering global profits at negligible tax rates. If Ireland was taking US territory at the rate it’s taking US jobs and profits, Obama would send in the bombers & troops. Sooner or later we will have to deal with our artificially high cost base so that we can create and sustain indigenous jobs. It’s fine for those employed in eg the pharmaceutical sector on high wages but citizens at large have to pay up to 20 times more for drugs than is the case in UK.
usual rubbish!! start up companies here especially small ones have to jump through rings of fire with red tape start up costs and taxes, make it easier and recoup when business’s are up and running, encourage not discourage
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