Export body warns of 91,000 job losses

WITHOUT Government intervention, job losses in the export sector will grow by 91,000 this year, the Irish Exporters Association is predicting.

It believes that for every one job lost in the export sector, another two jobs will be lost elsewhere in the economy.

Figures for the first quarter of this year released by the association today show a 9.6 per cent drop in the value of exports when compared with the same period last year. The value of exports fell to €33.78 billion from €37.38 billion in the first quarter last year.

Without Government intervention “the prognosis for the full year is that exports will continue to decline at an accelerated rate, leading to substantially-increased unemployment in the sector”.

The association is predicting exports will drop by 13 per cent in value this year, with a loss of export revenue of €20.2 billion.

It believes the fall-off will be particularly sharp in services, which are expected to fall by 20 per cent in value terms, compared to an expected fall of 7.8 per cent for merchandise.

It said the situation of indigenous exporters was particularly bad because of the effective 21 per cent depreciation in the value of sterling against the euro over the past 12 months.

“Indigenous exporting companies which traditionally have a high labour market content depend on the UK market for 53 per cent of their sales,” Mr Whelan said.

The figures released by the association show that merchandise exports by the mainly multinational exporters in the pharma/chemicals and medical devices areas held up during the quarter, while the agri/food and beverage sectors fell by 15 per cent and 9 per cent respectively.

Services exports have been particularly heavily hit by the global crisis. Financial services exports were down by 50 per cent in value terms compared to the first quarter of 2008 to €900 million.

Business services were down by 38 per cent to €2.85 billion.

Computer services were down 9 per cent, to €5.25 billion. The computer services sector, which includes such firms as Facebook, Paypal, e-Bay and Google, now accounts for 40 per cent of total services exports.

Mr Whelan said with an expectation this year of 4.5 per cent deflation, there was a strong case for wage reductions. Energy prices, utility and property prices, and legal, accounting and consultancy costs were also areas where costs were higher than the EU norm.