Ireland: Hundreds of People Queue for Low Wage Retail Sales Jobs in Dublin
April 25th, 2009I was last in Ireland in 1999. On the flight over from the U.S., I was discussing the economic boom times Ireland was experiencing with someone involved with the computer industry there. He said something like, “We’ll enjoy it while it lasts, but, deep down, everyone knows it’s a bunch of shite. Maybe it’ll last five more years, but it won’t last ten.” He knew one of the Aer Lingus air hostesses (or, “trolly dollies” as one of my other Irish friends calls them). The minibar service was outstanding on that flight.
But it won’t last ten…
Best Commentary from Ireland: Twenty Major
Research Credit: Idleworm
Posted in Economy | Top Of Page
Note how the notice said “Advanced in English”, That’s Dublinese for “foreigners need not apply”, for Ireland has a sizable immigrant population now, ironically enough after centuries of Irish emigration!
While things in Ireland are certainly gloomy, in this case maybe it’s not all it seems. There were over 100 jobs on offer here.
The queue for jobs is one of the most powerful images of an economic depression. Indeed the footage I saw later in the week had been shot on a mobile phone and posted on YouTube, under the heading “Irish Recession”.
By yesterday it had received 32,047 hits. On YouTube the related video is a report by a French television station entitled Ireland: A Job Lost Every Five Minutes.
Séamus Griffin, managing director of the Griffin-Londis group, had been surprised by the number of people who had turned up to apply for the jobs. “I’d expected quite a few people but not that many,” he said on Friday. There were 12 interviewers waiting for the job applicants.
The interviews took from five in the evening until 10 at night. Some people queued for two hours. The Londis staff provided them with tea and coffee. It was the perfect recession story.
Or maybe not. For one thing there were more than 100 jobs to be filled. Séamus Griffin, who runs a total of 16 Londis stores in Dublin’s city centre and at Sandyford, as well as three Subway sandwich stores, is opening three new Londis branches in the Dublin area, at Adamstown, Stepaside and Lucan.
According to Griffin, less than 2½ per cent of the people in that queue were Irish. “A huge amount from Pakistan,” said Griffin. “A huge amount from Brazil. The Brazilians have a great networking system.”