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55% of Irish workers are concerned that they would not have enough money to retire comfortably

A new study carried out by Irish Life in conjunction with Behaviour & Attitudes in 2015, has found that 55% of Irish workers are concerned that they would not have enough money to retire comfortably, with this of most concern to the group aged 50-64 years (64%).

A third of people were also worried about not being able to meet household debt commitments. Only 13% of people said they had few or no financial worries.

The study of more than 2,000 adults also indicates that 71% of working households are on track to retire without a significant standard of living adjustment, the remainder will experience a significant drop in their standard of living.

A surprisingly high number (22%) of mid to high income households will also carry mortgage debt into retirement.

For more on this article, please visit: Business World

 

Irish retail sales rose at their fastest rate in eight years

Irish retail sales rose at their fastest rate in eight years before Christmas as struggling stores waged a cut-price shopping war.

Shopping soared by over 9 per cent, as bargain-hunters flocked to city centres and malls to pick up gifts, partywear and tasty treats.

The latest data also gave a glimpse of the festive shopping spree, revealing the value of shopping done lagged behind the amount of sales. This means retailers were slashing prices to win customers.

The figures, for the year to end the end of last November, showed a 5.6 per cent rise in value of sales, compared with 9.3 per cent increase in volume.

Electrical goods enjoyed the most dramatic boost in turnover in the year, with an increase of over 22 per cent.

Department stores were also big winners with a 14pc increase in sales. Furniture and lighting sales rose by 18pc.

ISME, which represents small to medium sized businesses, welcomed the growth in sales.

However, it warned that retail jobs are in danger because wages are rising.

For more on this article, please visit: Irish Independent

 

Ireland’s unemployment rate is at its lowest level since December 2008

According to the latest Monthly Unemployment release from the CSO, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged in December at 8.8%.

The unemployment rate is at its lowest level since December 2008’s 8.6%, with the rate having fallen from the high of 15.2% reached in January 2012. Employment rose in twelve of the fourteen economic sectors on an annual basis and fell in the other two in the third quarter of 2015, according to the most recent published figures. The greatest rate of increase was posted in the Construction (+13.3% or 15,000) sector. The pick-up in this sector is particularly encouraging given that it was the one that suffered the worst job losses in the economic downturn.
In 2016 the Departmenet of Finance is projecting that Ireland will pass the twon million people in employment mark, replace all of the jobs lost during the downturn by 2018 and in total, between 2015 and 2020, add more than 200,000 new jobs.

For more on this article, please visit: Business World

Ireland’s service sector expanded strongly in the month of December

Ireland’s service sector expanded strongly in the month of December to mark three and half years of unbroken growth, as the economy outpaced its European pears in 2015 for a second successive year.

The Investec Purchasing Managers’ Index of activity in services, which covers businesses from banks to hotels, slipped to 61.8 from November’s nine year high of 63.2.

However the index remains well above the 50 mark that denotes growth in activity. The last fall below 60 was in February 2014 when Ireland was emerging from a three-year international bailout.

The employment sub-index, which in November recorded a record high of 62.0, dropped to an eight-month low of 58.6 last month.

However it noted that increasing backlogs of work should support ongoing growth in employment in the sector through 2016.

For more on this article, please visit: RTE Business News

Firms backed by Enterprise Ireland created 10,000 jobs last year

Approximately 10,000 jobs were created last year by Enterprise Ireland client companies last year, making it the best performance by Irish exporting companies in several decades.

According to Enterprise Ireland end of year statement, which is due to be published today, sees more than 192,000 people are now employed at Enterprise Ireland-backed firms.

Enterprise Ireland has invested in 196 seed stage investments since 2010, according to PitchBook, a leading VC and private equity investment platform, which is regularly used by over 70,000 professionals to profile start-ups. This places the organisation ahead of well-known venture capital (VC) firms such as Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures.

The majority of the firms backed by Enterprise Ireland were in areas such as software and services, cleantech, engineering, medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

For more on this article, please visit: The Irish Times

Survey shows small firms feel business environment is improving

According to a new survey The Small Firms Association’s New Year Outlook has found four out of five owner/managers of small firms feel the business environment is improving, while two thirds of them expect to be hiring new staff in 2016.

The survey also shows that over 40% of firms see domestic economic growth as their biggest opportunity in 2016.

Other positive factors identified were specific sectoral opportunities (14%), exporting (12%) and bringing new products to market (10%).

Over 65% of survey respondents indicated their intention to recruit over the coming year, up slightly since the last survey in June.

The survey results highlight a number of risk factors identified for small businesses in 2016, including cashflow issues (18%), rising business costs (15%), economic instability (14%), wage inflation (13%), and legislative/regulatory burden (13%).

A separate survey from the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises association strikes a similarly optimistic note.

Its members say they have seen improvements across ten out of 12 indicators tracked by ISME.

ISME also expects recruitment to be strong this year and is predicting up to 60,000 new jobs will be created by small and medium-sized businesses.

For more on this article, please visit: RTE Business News