People have sacrificed their employment to make up for those emigrating?

Apparently the emigration figures in the early eighties were higher than we are currently witnessing. At that time people found it easier to travel without appropriate work documentation and become employed. What is much more interesting is the inflow of people from other EU States which seems to balance the outflows and all of these people seem to very quickly acquire some form of employment whether short term or minimum wage. This would suggest an unwillingness to accept particular forms of employment by the Irish and this may permanently alter the labour market here.

@paddy – not sure if the ‘Irish are unwilling to do certain jobs’ argument is correct, however, it is logical that immigrants will be aiming for low skill and the hospitality sector as is traditional, and they are hungrier for work. It stands to reason that someone who’s aim is to earn x amount of cash in x number of years and is willing to live in sub standard accommodation or house share with many people will be willing to work as much as you want then too as they are working towards an end goal as opposed to the Irish worker who wants to earn a living wage. The added benefit to the employer is that many immigrants do not know their labour rights and can be exploited by certain types.

@Paddy Rogers apparently according to the CSO you would have to go back to the 1800 to witness the current numbers emigrating. Also according to the CSO many of those migrating into Ireland are Irish people returning from places like Australia as their 1 year visas have expired. Indeed they say almost half of those coming here are Irish.

My daughter is in her early twenties. She and four of her university educated friends are emigrating in two weeks time . We are exporting our best assets. These figures do not reflect the numbers on education schemes, Fas schemes or those emigrating . And no figure will ever reflect the broken hearts of parents who have to watch their children emigrate in order to find suitable work .

my brother (who is 22 and a manager) had a job here that he gave up to move to Canada because he couldnt see himself building a future or furthering his career whilst living here and I think many people feel the same.

Or maybe the number of job losses closely matched the numbers leaving the country?

I have a job here but I am still very much considering building a life elsewhere. No kids yet but do I want to raise them here? Having them paying for the mistakes of others? Having their quality of life lessened because the government acts in the interest of corporations and not citizens? Paying for incompetent ministers. And all this done in the rain.