by Shushu Xie

Despite a rosy job market in general, work opportunities for young people in Ireland remain uncertain.

Chris O’Reilly, 23, a waiter for a franchise chicken shop that has three outlets in Dublin, is interviewing for jobs in grocery shops and other workplaces. He has just applied for a cleaning job in a hospital. The fried chicken restaurant had a pleasant ambience, and he had a great rapport with most of his colleagues, he said, but he had to leave because he wasn’t getting enough hours to survive. 

’’The prices in our chicken shops have gone up by a big difference, [so] nowadays people eat in restaurants less and perhaps, shop in grocery stores for food more,’’ he said. ’’I can’t survive on the hours they give me. I have to get another job.’’

When the business was good, the cooks and the waitressing people, predominantly young, used to get around 40 hours a week. But the footfall has dropped a lot recently since the prices were raised in the restaurant after a considerable cost rise both from supplier price hikes and energy bills. Chris used to work four or five days a week, but nowadays, it can be reduced to one or two. 

’’There are quite a few people in my shop that do food delivery in the evenings to get more money to pay the bills,’’ Chris said. “The hours we are getting are simply not enough.’’

A report released by the Central Statistics Office shows monthly unemployment rate of January 2023 at 4.4%. While the overall rate has remained low since May 2022, the unemployment rate among 15 to 24 year olds stands at a much higher 10.4%. This age group is typically more reliant on low-skilled jobs especially in the hospitality sector, which is still struggling from Covid travel restrictions from before. 

Source: Central Statistics Bureau 

According to a survey by Fáilte Ireland, 74% of operators in the foods and drinks sector expect their business performance to remain the same or fare worse in 2023 than in 2022, with only 26% showing optimism about their turnover going up. After all, 51% of pubs in Ireland have had fewer customers in 2022 than in the pre-Covid era, and only 4 in 23 restaurants are performing better than pre-Covid.

The pubs and restaurants that are doing well are still active players on the hiring end of the job market. But for those that struggle to recover from Covid, reducing opening hours and cutting working hours for existing staff has become the norm. This issue is not exclusive to hospitality. The cost-of-living crisis shrinks the disposable income for many people, which harms the high street business. 

Martha, a shop assistant at a fast fashion outlet in a city centre shopping mall, said the shop has been quiet for quite a few months. Martha now works 3 days a week, compared with 4 or 5 days a week in early 2022, when business was better. 

’’I am lucky because some of my colleagues chucked their jobs,’’ she said, ’’and no matter how bad the business is, they have to maintain a certain amount of staff in the shop anyway, so I am getting less hours, but then, not significantly less.’’

Swedish Fast fashion giant H&M announced recently that it would slash 1,500 jobs globally. The business climate has cooled off for retailers in many countries, which have cut staff, as shops have been challenged with inflated energy bills.

Harrietta Doherty, a medicine student at UCD, said she was struggling to find a part-time job. 

’’I got a job at Domino’s after a 2-day job hunt in September [2022], and I was confident in getting work,’’ she said, ’’but all of a sudden, it gets a lot more difficult. I have applied to loads of shops and restaurants, as have other students in my flat. My job hunting has been on for weeks, and only one of us has got a job at a fast food chain.’’

’’I am still waiting for a reply,’’ she added, ’I need a job to bring some money in to pay the bills.’’