Where will the axe fall. (Jobs in the Construction Sector)

[UpUpAndAway]

who will be first to go,

Irish construction companies,
If they where going to let somebody go, would it be
renters or mortgage holders that would be left go first?
Would it be the "hard working" immigrant or the lazy complancent Irish?
Everything else being equal of course.

Will we end up with unemployed irish mortatage holders while having an industry full of hard working renting immigrants?

[andrew]

Last in, first out, is the usual rule.

[drbob1972]

those whom will go first are those whom are needed least, most expensive, less reliable etc., business has very little room for sentiment I'm afraid. Thats not to say there will be a scenario like you allude to, personally i think there will be a mixture of irish and immigrants whom will lose out, however the big difference between those two groups is that the immigrants can up sticks to other locations with work with relative ease, that will not be so easy for many of the Irish workers effected

[clareman51]

Small bit of pedantry if you don't mind. Affect is the verb. Effect is the noun.

[Cricklewood]

Used to be last in, first to go.Now its "most expensive,first to go".Reliability is not as important as cost to construction companies and sentiment is non existent.
When it comes to retaining staff in construction, the only concern is cost.

[bluemajor]

in the last week or two figures released said the €750 was the average weekly wage for unskilled workers in construction, is it likely that the cheaper immigrants will be kept on instead of the overpaid irish. If the predicted house building is going to halve in 2008 surely there will be massive job losses in construction

[PaintingMedium]

the lazy complancent Irish

Do you consider yourself to be lazy and complacent?
Where did this stereotype come from, and how is it okay to stereotype the whole Irish nation as this?

[Munion]

As an employer in the construction industry I look at the following criteria

- Ability
- Attitude (is he a pure 39hrs guy or will he do overtime when asked)
- Cost of redundancy package
- Future potential i.e. would he be able to become a foreman and look after small jobs for me without having to babysit him

His own personal circumstances don't enter the equation at all.

[Stíofán]

from anecdotal evidence (friends involved in Construction) it's been Eastern Europeans who have been laid off first. As Andrew mentioned above, it's usually first in, first out.

One wonders what Eastern Europeans would do if they lost their job. Return home immediatly?

[Edo]

Used to be last in, first to go.Now its "most expensive,first to go".Reliability is not as important as cost to construction companies and sentiment is non existent.
When it comes to retaining staff in construction, the only concern is cost.

Spot on

The main construction firms have already thinned the ranks - its mainly the more cost efficient immigrant workforce who have retained their jobs - as the majority of work for the forseeable future will be in infrastructure - a more highly skilled workforce will be required and a different skillset will be needed and its much less labour intensive.

Those who will be affected the most will be the hundreds of small business and "artisans" ( I used the word reservedly - it sounds better than "cowboys" -hey its christmas) who were set up over the last decade to serve the property monster - these are mostly Irish staffed and a make up a lot of employment in rural areas - particularly as the native Irish won't work in Agribusiness and rural small industry - these will be firsty to be dropped by the large construction firms as business runs down, the credit crunch, capital appreciation stagnation and the end of the last of SSIA motherlode could mean tough times ahead for these folks - and they wont get their old jobs back in the factories without a major cut in renumeration from the immigrant population which is well established and has been the only reason our industrial and export industry has stayed as fit as it has.

Bad times ahead for rural Ireland , outside Dublin and other major pop centres methinks - now I can understand that lunatic of an FG councillor in Monaghan on the recent Primtime special on planning - for the vast majority of rural Ireland - house building and its derivatives has been the only game in town for the last decade.