McNARRY SAYS INI NEEDS TO FOCUS MORE ON LOCALLY GENERATED AND HIGHER PAID JOBS
David McNarry MLA, the Ulster Unionist Chief Whip, has said that it was important for the NI Executive and for Invest Northern Ireland (INI) to set its sights high in attracting new jobs with pay rates which were above the industry average.
“In the past two years only 3,184 of the 6,016 new jobs created by INI had pay rates which were above their sectoral average. That is just 53%. What Northern Ireland needs is well remunerated jobs in high value-added areas.”
“The other problem with new job creation is the heavy dependence on the Business and Financial Services sector. In the past two years some 62% of all new jobs created were in that sector. While those jobs were very welcome, that sector was particularly susceptible to recession. Only 30% of those new jobs in the Business and Financial Services sector had pay rates above the sectoral average.”
“There needs to be a stronger analysis of the potential business opportunities which are home-grown, particularly those based on patents held in our two Universities. Home-grown jobs while initially fewer in number tended to have more staying power and to be less prone to move to low-wage locations elsewhere in the world.”
“It also has to be remembered that if there is to be a move from the public to the private sector, that many of our existing public sector jobs are comparatively well paid. There are concerns that well paid public sector jobs could be replaced by less well paid private sector jobs. The downside of that is that spending power in the economy will be reduced. This will have a major knock-on impact on the retail sector and it could lead to the unpicking of several local economies, particularly in the Belfast Travel to Work area.”
“I believe we need to look again at the strategy of INI and of the Strategic Investment Board with all of the constraints I have outlined in mind. The economy is complex and heavily inter-dependent and before we seek simplistic solutions to job creation problems we need to look at the knock-on impacts those create.”