130,000 accession country migrants have joined the Irish labour force

Recent figures state that up to as many as 130,000 accession country migrants have joined the Irish labour force.

Irish jobsite, Jobsearch.ie, has conducted a survey of 160 Irish companies to ascertain if they have hired accession country nationals since the accession in May 2004, and of the 160 companies canvassed, 122 have hired accession country nationals.

The companies were of various sizes, as follows

1 ñ 10 staff 17%
10 ñ 34 staff 35%
30 ñ 100 staff 29%
100 staff 19%

The 122 companies who have hired accession country staff since May 2004 have a combined overall work force of: 11,281

The total amount of accession country nationals hired by these companies since May 2004: 1,851 (representing 16.40 % of their total current work force)

Of the 122 companies that hired foreign nationals,

88% hired Polish

43% have hired Lithuanian

43% have hired Czech

33.5% have hired Hungarians

31% have hired Slovakians

26% have hired Latvians

12% have hired Slovenians

9.5% have hired Estonians

2.5% have hired Cypriots

2.5% have hired Maltese

Certain statistics reflect the difference in hiring difficulties between May 2004 and now.

40% of respondents stated that it was difficult to hire staff before May 2004 while 30% stated that it is difficult to hire staff now.

27.5% stated that they had found it very difficult to hire staff before May 2004, while 15% stated that it is very difficult to hire staff now.

Thus far, while many accession country workers have been hired for unskilled and semi-skilled roles, more and more Irish companies are now becoming aware of the availability of highly educated and experienced accession country jobseekers, and many of the survey respondents are now hiring financial, pharmaceutical, engineering and IT professionals from these countries.

Of the 38 respondents who have not hired staff from the accession countries, 22 have stated an intention of doing so, and this proportion of respondents are strongly represented by the white collar sectors.

The remainder cited the concern that level of English would be inadequate for client liaison, and several mentioned unwillingness to invest in training when there is the possibility of an employee having to return to their home country after a short while.

Of the survey respondents who have hired accession country nationals since May 2004,

55% of respondents stated that they are very satisfied with their decision.

40% stated that they are satisfied

while 2.5% stated that they are dissatisfied, and 2.5% stated that they are very dissatisfied with their decision to hire accession country nationals.

Of the advantages that accession country staff show over indigenous staff

52.5% of respondents believe that productivity is an advantage.

80% believe that accession country staff excel in reliability

60% believe that they excel in punctuality

37.5% of respondents view the salary expectations of accession country staff as an advantage while no respondents considered salary expectations to be a disadvantage.

20% cite level of expertise as being greater than that of Irish staff,, while just 5% cite level of experience as being an advantage over Irish staff.

Of the disadvantages in hiring accession country staff, 87.5% of respondents cited level of English as being the main disadvantage.

30% cited lack of knowledge of the Irish marketplace as being a disadvantage.

12.5% stated that lack of experience was a problem ñ the feeling amongst these respondents is that migrant jobseekers sometimes overstate their experience and qualifications

Of the 122 respondents who have hired accession country nationals since May 2004, just 5 companies said that they would be wary about doing so in the future.

Each respondent was asked to provide a few sentences to summarise their attitude towards hiring non-nationals.

They were asked to summarise both the positive and the negative aspects of having hired accession country nationals.

As for the advantages, a typical sentiment was that these migrant workers have no Celtic Tiger attitudes.

Most respondents felt that migrant workers are willing to work hard, and to do so without demanding inflated salaries.

Some of the highly skilled sectors, such as the engineering sector, have had major difficulties in sourcing skills and expertise from within the

Indigenous Irish workforce, and since May 2004 have hired many, if not most, of their staff from the accession countries.

The building, hospitality, transport, manufacturing and agricultural sectors are now very dependant on accession country labour.

These respondents state that the main advantages that accession country workers bring to their industries are availability and work ethic.

The following quote from one hotel speaks for many of these respondents:

In our experience the Accession Country folk actually want to work, something which is a novelty to employers in the hospitality industry.

They have widened the pool of potential staff on offer & while they may not always have experience of the job on offer, they are willing to train & soon pass our own staff in experience & standards. They are very respectful and courteous towards their peers & supervisors.

Several multi-nationals are represented in the survey. In that multi-nationals often base their European call centres here, they are now hiring staff from the accession countries to fill technical, administrative, and also multi-lingual roles. For example, some companies have long had difficulty in attracting native German speakers to Ireland, and are now servicing the German market with ethnic Germans from Hungary and the Czech Republic.

To quote a leading multi-national:

ìThe wider EU gives us access to an even wider talent pool. Many people in the accession states want to gain experience in other countries, so are highly motivated in any new roles we can offer in Ireland.î

Of the disadvantages of hiring accession country workers, many respondents replied that there are no disadvantages, but of those that cited drawbacks, the predominant one was that accession country workers often have only a basic understanding of English. In a few cases, respondents stated that accession country workers tend to overstate their experience and expertise.

One respondent quoted the fact that accession country workers want to work more hours than the company can pay them for as being a disadvantage.