Avoid the commute: work near home in Westmeath
Lots of workers aren’t fully up to speed on the range and the quality of jobs available in the midlands – jobs that for many locally-based residents could remove the need to commute.
And that, explains Tony Palmer, is why the website MidlandJobs.ie had a stand at last Wednesday’s sustainability event.
"There are lots of good jobs in the midlands region and our support at this event here at the premises of Irish Manufacturing Research is literally because we want to avoid people commuting," says Tony.
"It doesn’t make sense that so many people are commuting out of the midlands, getting in their cars, getting on to the M4 or the M6 and heading into the Dublin region every day, wasting their time, money, energy, diesel when they could be based in Mullingar, Tullamore, Longford or Portlaoise and getting good jobs in this region."
MidlandJobs.ie is not a recruitment agency: it’s more of a jobs board.
"We deal directly with some of the larger companies around the region – Mergon, Decotek, Shay Murtagh, so there’s lots of good jobs in the region.
Midland Jobs has participated in a number of jobs fairs – including a recent one at Maynooth University – and it is looking forward to taking part in the September fair currently being organised by Mullingar Chamber of Commerce.
"We’re basically publicising, promoting, pushing the quality employment that there is in midlands region.
"Very often what happens is, you have people leaving the area, they’re going and working in Dublin or the Dublin region. They come back at the weekends and they’re just not aware of the opportunities in this area. So this is the best way for them to be made aware of the good jobs that are in there in the area."
The jobs are across all sectors: "They can be in anything – from manufacturing to IT – there’s a lot of interest in the in the IT sector at the minute – and from that to food production as well as the likes of accounts jobs, administration, right across the board."
Because of the demand for workers locally, the salary gap is also narrowing.
"Also, when you think about it, the pandemic got people to be based more locally," says Tony. "As well, there’s a whole movement towards people working remotely, so that has had the effect – at least to some extent – of salaries assimilating between here and the cities, so that’s less of a difference than there used to be.
"What I can also say is people are saving a lot more money because they’re not having to have to spend it on higher rents or higher commuting fees."