Monday, 18 January 2010

Research Study on the Affects of Unemployment in Ireland

Unemployment – The Irish Experience  UCD logo

This UCD (University College Dublin) research study, in which you are invited to participate in, is focused on examining the well-being of a group within Irish society – the unemployed.

The study has an over-arching aim of capturing what it is like to be unemployed in Ireland at the beginning of 2010 – of putting a human face on the recession. In listening to your thoughts, perspectives and lived-experiences of joblessness, a snapshot of how a period of joblessness can affect your well-being will be acquired. In painting a picture of joblessness, your participation in the study will, it is hoped, shed light on how your material, emotional, psychological and physical well-being is being affected during this period in your life.

Participation in this research takes the form of a group discussion, and is entirely voluntary. A group discussion should be viewed as a form of guided conversation, where, you the participant, facilitated by a researcher, have the opportunity to discuss issues which are important and meaningful to you at this time. In this format, questions will be put to the group as a whole and not to individual persons. Each discussion will be 60–90 minutes in duration. As a gesture of appreciation for your participation in the discussion, you will receive a monetary sum (€ 10).

Furthermore, for the purposes of accuracy, the discussion will be recorded using a digital voice recorder. All information gathered will be treated as confidential and in order to maintain your anonymity, all identifying information (e.g. names, places) will be removed from any documents resulting from the data.

To conclude, if you would like to take part in this research, or you would like further information, feel free to get in touch with us…
-------
If you are interested in taking part in this project please forward your name and contact details to The Job Seekers Union - ucdresearch@thejobseekersunion.com 

Monday, 11 January 2010

2010 – A Word of Hope for the Unemployed

2009 was a difficult year for almost everyone. For the unemployed it was particularly tough.
In the first month alone over 30,000 people lost their jobs. I know what it was like, I was one of them. There was an atmosphere of doom and gloom. Every day the news was of more job losses and lengthening unemployment queues. People from all walks of life were affected: solicitors, estate agents, architects, as well as blue collar workers and construction labourers. Most had never been unemployed before.
No-one was able to offer any hope. It was the same everywhere. Ireland was in the grip of a world-wide recession. Our situation was worse than most though.  We were crashing from the heady days of the Celtic Tiger. Our banks were in freefall; reckless borrowing, greed and corruption their downfall. We were angry, frightened, bewildered.
As we enter the New Year, have things got any better?
The truthful answer is no. The level of unemployment in Ireland is still far too high. The majority of the people who lost their jobs are still unemployed. Job Seekers benefits have been cut. And yet things have settled down. The rate of job losses has stabilised. There are even signs that the economy may be about to show some improvement.
What has happened to all the people who lost their jobs? There have been no mass protests in the streets, no riots, no civil unrest. If we are honest, we are lucky. Ireland treats the unemployed far better than almost anywhere else. We may be getting less than we were before the Budget, but we’re still getting more than they do in Britain, and far more than the Eastern European countries that recently joined the EU. Maybe we should be grateful for small mercies – things could after all be a lot worse.
But unemployment brings other problems, not just financial ones. Boredom, hopelessness, low self-worth, stress and depression are the symptoms of long-term unemployment. To survive joblessness you have to be tough. You have to try to turn it to your advantage. The one positive thing it gives you is time; and time gives you the chance to do things you’ve never been able to do before.
I don’t want to underestimate the difficulties of being unemployed, but I would like to offer encouragement and motivation. I know how hard it is being without work. The worst thing though is to feel sorry for yourself. You have to try to be positive, to see unemployment as an opportunity not a burden. What can you do with the extra time? That’s the trick, to use that time constructively.
There are still jobs out there. There may be fewer than there were, but they are there.  Maybe you need to retrain to get one. If so what’s stopping you? What about your hobbies or those things you’ve always wanted to do? Let’s look at some of the possibilities. Starting a vegetable garden is interesting, physically challenging and rewarding; it can also save you money. Travel needn’t be expensive.  You can get to London by bus for €70. You can join the YHA and stay in a hostel for far less than you’d imagine. If you are creative you can write a book, take up art, or a craft like candle-making, embroidery, cooking. There may even be an opportunity to earn an income from your work.
That brings me on to the other great opportunity that unemployment offers anyone who is in any way enterprising – the chance to start your own small business. Getting into business is far easier than you might imagine. All you really need is the will to do it. There are thousands of different types of business: washing cars, domestic cleaning, door-to-door selling, child-minding, house maintenance, bookkeeping, buying and selling cars, bed and breakfast, repairing electrical equipment or computers, installing burglar alarms, couriers, dog-walking, garden maintenance, dressmaking, window cleaning, massage therapy, ironing, breeding chickens, selling second-hand clothing, party planning, mini-cabbing, furniture restoration, office cleaning, etc, etc ,etc.
If you are thinking of starting a small business, it would be worth talking to the County Enterprise Board. They should be able to help with useful advice and mentoring. You may also be able to apply for financial help under the Back to Work Scheme which allows you to keep your Job Seekers benefits while you are starting up your business.
Another source of income which might be plausible is to rent a spare room in your house. If you choose your tenant carefully it needn’t be as inconvenient as it sounds. Remember too that FAS run lots of training courses offering new skills and experience aimed at getting you back to work.
As we enter 2010 let’s be optimistic and make a New Year’s resolution to use the time unemployment offers us as positively as we can. If you are creative and enterprising you really can improve your situation. It’s up to after all; no-one is going to do it for you.


Copyright © David Jones 2010

"NEW YEAR, NEW START" - Life Coaching Services

Contact Nuala Duignan now for a personal consultation and have a chance to get going urgently with Action Steps towards empowerment in 2010.

Read some of Nuala's artices or view her web site at: www.nualaduignanlifecoach.com

You can also visit her Testimonial Page to hear what others have said.

Contact Nuala to arrange meeting this week at: 087  2532675 or info@nualaduignanlifecoach.com 


Judge The Job Website Now Live

Judge the Job, the website that we posted about recently is now live. 


"It’s all very well finding a job to apply for, but how do you really know what it’s like to work at that company?  How do you know if it’s the right move for you?" Judge the Job helps you make informed career decisions by finding out what it's really like on the inside. We wish the website well and hope job seekers will find it a useful resource in determining their career path. 


Visit the website to see how it works ...

Labels

Unemployment (14) Life Coaching (11) Nuala Duignan (10) The Job Seekers Union (10) recession (6) CV Preparation (5) Oh No I've Lost My Job (5) Success (5) job seekers (5) losing your job (5) Dublin Job Club (4) economic crisis (4) Right to Work Campaign (3) education (3) finding a job (3) political leadership (3) publishing (3) self-publishing (3) CV advice (2) Celtic Tiger (2) Getting Published (2) Getting us Back to Work (2) Google Chrome (2) IMF (2) Irish economy (2) Judge The Job (2) Negativity (2) New Year (2) adult education (2) boredom (2) competitiveness (2) cutbacks (2) democracy (2) depression (2) doom and gloom (2) entrepreneurship (2) family (2) getting a job (2) humour (2) job creation (2) job losses (2) mindsets (2) money (2) politicians (2) public sector (2) rejection (2) self-confidence (2) self-esteem (2) stress (2) taxation (2) time management (2) training (2) volunteering (2) wage cuts (2) wage structure (2) work (2) AWARE (1) Advertsing (1) Aontas (1) Assisted Publishing (1) Back to Work Scheme (1) Bank Bailouts (1) Blog (1) Blogger (1) Book (1) Brian Lenihan (1) Britain (1) Career (1) Career Advice (1) Conor Cunneen (1) Dale Carnegie (1) David McWilliams (1) December budget (1) Discussion document (1) Donegal (1) Draft Action Plan (1) Draft Action Programme (1) Elections (1) Eugene Lane (1) FAS (1) Fintan O'Toole (1) GNP (1) Gender Issues (1) Gettysburg Address (1) Grand Canal (1) Henry Longfellow (1) History (1) Internet Explorer (1) Interview preparation (1) Irish political system (1) Irish population (1) Irritation surveys (1) JSU Draft Action Plan (1) Jarrow marchers (1) Job Hunters journal (1) Job Hunting Skills (1) Job Seekers Classifieds (1) Job Seekers Union (1) Jobs and Public Services (1) John F. Kennedy (1) Law of Certainty (1) Learn More (1) Leitrim County Enterprise Board (1) March to the Dáil (1) Mary Robinson (1) Mozilla Firefox (1) Murphy's Law (1) National Maximum Wage (1) National Minimum Wage (1) Northern Ireland (1) PLC programmes (1) Photography (1) Protest (1) Rebecca Kearney (1) SIPTU (1) Samaritans (1) Search Engines (1) Shakespeare (1) SlideShare (1) Social Networking (1) Spam (1) Statesmen (1) TV3 (1) The Celtic Tiger (1) The Golden Circle (1) The Government (1) The Great Famine (1) The Job Seekers Blog (1) The Job Seekers Union - Membership (1) The Merchant of Venice (1) The Morning Show (1) UCD (1) Wordpress (1) Work-Life Balance (1) achieving goals (1) adult learning (1) adversity (1) anger (1) art of planning (1) arts and creative sector (1) attitude (1) back to education scheme (1) background research (1) burdens and fears (1) business media (1) career decisions (1) career recommendations (1) cashflow (1) comfort zone (1) confidence (1) creative careers (1) creativity (1) credit crunch (1) de-cluttering (1) despair (1) economic climate (1) economic revival (1) emigration (1) employment website (1) empowerment (1) enterprise (1) exercise (1) expenses (1) exports (1) failure (1) flexi-time (1) foreign investment (1) forgiveness (1) free business portraits (1) freedom (1) gap between rich and poor (1) give to receive (1) global economy (1) globalisation (1) government borrowings (1) government spending (1) group discussion (1) half a million unemployed (1) happiness contract (1) hated catchphrases (1) health (1) health services (1) homelessness (1) immune system (1) indebtedness (1) independence (1) industry (1) inner beauty (1) internships (1) job clubs (1) job-sharing (1) joblessness (1) jobs (1) jobs and public sercices (1) knowledge economy (1) laughter (1) leadership (1) life experiences (1) lonliness (1) manufacturing (1) mental and physical health (1) migrant workers (1) mind/body link (1) minimum wage (1) motivation (1) nation's wealth (1) neighbourliness (1) new thinking (1) night courses in Ireland (1) nostalgia (1) office romances (1) optimism (1) perseverance (1) pessimism (1) platitudes (1) positivity (1) postive thinking (1) potholes (1) prioritisation (1) procastination (1) public purse (1) public spending (1) public works programme (1) reasons to be cheerful (1) reflationary policies (1) self-belief (1) senior civil servants (1) smiling (1) social acceptance (1) social stigmas (1) social welfare (1) social welfare cuts (1) socialising (1) source of comfort (1) style coaching (1) suicide (1) tax burden (1) telling family and friends (1) the blame game (1) the economy (1) the future (1) top executives (1) tourism (1) trade unionists (1) up-skilling (1) vulnerability (1) wages (1) welfare entitlements (1) your heath (1)