So many jobs announced, but how many of them materialise?

It seems as though barely a day goes by without another high-profile IDA-backed jobs announcement. Last week it was US pharma companies Pfizer and BioMarin Manufacturing with 70 new positions between them for Dublin and Cork.

A few weeks earlier, Limerick was the lucky winner with the promise of more than 270 high-end jobs courtesy of Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, Ethicon Biosurgery Ireland.

While any jobs announcement is something to be welcomed, Cantillon can't help wondering how many of the positions loudly proclaimed by IDA-backed companies end up coming onstream.

The news that SumUp, an international mobile payments technology firm, has decided to close its Dublin headquarters just 18 months after it opened is a case in point. SumUp announced the opening of its Irish operation, with backing from IDA Ireland, in late 2012 and said it would employ up to 40 people here. As it turns out, 30 jobs were created by the company, all of which have now been lost.

In this particular case, the disparity between the number of jobs promised and the number delivered wasn’t that great, but in other situations, the difference has been substantial.

In recent years, we have become used to hearing about how many jobs are going to be created on some bright day in the future, not hard numbers of how many actually were.

This has become the norm to such a degree that between the Government’s various action plans for jobs and IDA-backed companies’ announcements, you’d be forgiven for wondering why so many people are without work.

It may be time to stop giving weight to the mere promise of jobs. After all, action speaks louder than words.