Sheffield lagging behind in job creation.

[Riannon 10]

I own a recruitment company based in Sheffield - we have been trading for almost 25 years mainly work in the manufacturing sector and have never been busier. Current permanent roles we are looking to fill are:

 

Administration Apprentice

CAD Technician

Multiskilled Maintenence Engineer

Continuous Improvement manager

Continuous Improvement Co-Ordinator

Patent Administrator

Russian Speaking Sales Administrator

Japanese Sales Person

IT Manager

Management Accountant

Mechanical Design Engineer

 

All of these roles are NEW JOBS because the manufacturing companies I work for are growing.

 

These are highly automated companies, but machinery does need people to design it, build it, run, service and constantly improve it so that the company can compete on an international playing field. And this is what local manufacturing companies with strong leaders are doing.

 

Leeds, contrary to popular belief also has a strong manufacturing sector. What they also have is the finance and insurance jobs, and an airport. They are also run by a Labour council.

 

So how many of these jobs are being advertised outside of Sheffield? ..Any advertised overseas?

[L00b 441]

So how many of these jobs are being advertised outside of Sheffield? ..Any advertised overseas?

I'm not sure that the "patent administrator" position in Debk's post is ours or the local competition's (depends how we phrased our requirement -I didn't look after that particular one- and I don't know if Debk's is one of the recruitment firms we use or not)...but FWIW, we only advertise/search locally (within 20-odd miles).

 

Since February 2013, we've advertised and filled 5 new full-time/full-hours jobs (a fully-badged professional, two trainees, two audiotypists) plus 2 replacements. All locals.

Edited January 28, 2014 by L00b

[Cyclone 10]

A friend has just been made redundant after 18 years for same place.

What they give her to compensate is insulting, the amount is so insulting it proves again all that effort all those years is meaningless.

 

I presume that she has actually been paid for the last 18 years, so the time wasn't entirely wasted.

 

If the job is redundant, then either the times they are a changing, or the company has less work to do, in those circumstances, what do you think that the people filling the redundant posts should be entitled to?

 

Bare in mind that if it were the other way around, she would be able to leave with a small amount of notice and nothing else.

 

---------- Post added 28-01-2014 at 14:37 ----------

 

It might if you worked in Birmingham. Or if you worked in London but your wife worked in Leeds. But I think the idea of HS2 is to allow business people to get to London quicker rather than commute daily.

 

It's more about an increase in capacity than the time reduction, that's just a nice bonus of building a modern railway.

 

---------- Post added 28-01-2014 at 14:40 ----------

 

But only if it is true. It was the sort of thing they bandied about when Sheffield had one university and about 8000 students. Fast forward 40 years to 2 universities and student numbers of around 35000 and I don't think the same is true unless you coun't the 2 graduates who are working behind the bar in my local boozer.

 

Evidence would support the original assertion...

 

http://www.claypenny.co.uk/blog/post/2012/06/26/Graduates-Stay-Put-In-Steel-City.aspx

[Jason Bourne 11]

A geology graduate working as a night porter. That sounds about right.

 

Last time you went to hospital, were you tended by a doctor, a nurse or the night porter?

 

Thought so.

[barpen 10]

 

 

Evidence would support the original assertion...

 

http://www.claypenny.co.uk/blog/post/2012/06/26/Graduates-Stay-Put-In-Steel-City.aspx

 

I'm not really convinced by an advertising blog, but even that seems to suggest that folk live in Sheffield but choose to work elsewhere.

 

"These transport links mean that many graduates opt to stay locally for longer because they can apply for jobs a long way away and still be physically able to travel to them. Many people live in Sheffield but work in Manchester, Leeds or Birmingham"

 

Non of which really helps with job creation in Sheffield.

[emma royd 10]

Last time you went to hospital, were you tended by a doctor, a nurse or the night porter?

 

Thought so.

 

Last time you were in hospital were you tended by a doctor with a degree in geology?

 

I thought not.

 

How about one with a degree in history, or Latin, French, politics, economics, mechanical engineering or civil engineering. No.

 

I thought not.

 

I think you will find most doctors are required to study medicine, so unless you get a job as a porter or a receptionist a degree in anything else isn't really going to help you get a job in our hospitals.

[ShefStealth 10]

There's two issues that nobody seems bothered about when it comes to this data. Firstly, the dataset is from 2012, when we were nationally still having periods of depression (not recession) mixed with periods of growth. The national economic picture looks different now than it did two years ago!

 

Seperately, it could easily be argued that London is growing because there is investment happening there. Over the past 10 years or so, they've had billions spent on their infrastructure for the London 2012 games. They've got major improvement programs happening with several of their railway stations (St Pancras and Kings Cross, Victoria, Stratford etc) They're investing majorly in their tube network, they're having a new line built (Crossrail) they've built several key new buildings (The Shard). There's currently arguments about airport expansion and capacity constraints. If you look at other areas that are apparently being "more profitable" then it's a similar story - Edinburgh is investing in a tram network and railway station overhaul, whilst also electrifying lots of their rail network. Leeds has built an arena, has argued for trams and trollybuses, built a building that's caused a wind-tunnel down a road, but they've at least still built something.

 

What's Sheffield been doing in the last 10 or so years? We've had big sections of our city centre compulsorily purchased to make way for the Sevenstone project that hasn't materialised, so we haven't been getting any revenue from having lots of shops empty. We've knocked down big sections of the Moor and not had anything much there since 2008 up until just a couple of months ago with the opening of the new Moor markets. We've closed down Don Valley stadium. We've build Derek Dooley way so that commuters to other places can get there quicker, and get back home more easily. We've had the St Pauls towerblock built that lots of people still say looks a little too much out of place, and a few multi-story carparks that are underutilised due to lack of interest in the city centre shopping experience.

 

London is reaping the benefits of lots of money flowing into it for them to be able to invest and gain further inflows of money. Sheffield should have been using the period of the downturn to be able to rebuild stuff at a cheaper market rate (Cost of materials and labour is cheaper during a downturn!) so that we could then capitalise on the new assets during the recovery!!

[Vague_Boy 10]

What is it that marks out Sheffield as a place where job investment isn't happening.

 

Private sector? Pft!!

 

T'council and the gubbermint are the ones who create jobs.

 

Just sit back and wait for them to do it.

[Riannon 10]

There's two issues that nobody seems bothered about when it comes to this data. Firstly, the dataset is from 2012, when we were nationally still having periods of depression (not recession) mixed with periods of growth. The national economic picture looks different now than it did two years ago!

 

Seperately, it could easily be argued that London is growing because there is investment happening there. Over the past 10 years or so, they've had billions spent on their infrastructure for the London 2012 games. They've got major improvement programs happening with several of their railway stations (St Pancras and Kings Cross, Victoria, Stratford etc) They're investing majorly in their tube network, they're having a new line built (Crossrail) they've built several key new buildings (The Shard). There's currently arguments about airport expansion and capacity constraints. If you look at other areas that are apparently being "more profitable" then it's a similar story - Edinburgh is investing in a tram network and railway station overhaul, whilst also electrifying lots of their rail network. Leeds has built an arena, has argued for trams and trollybuses, built a building that's caused a wind-tunnel down a road, but they've at least still built something.

 

What's Sheffield been doing in the last 10 or so years? We've had big sections of our city centre compulsorily purchased to make way for the Sevenstone project that hasn't materialised, so we haven't been getting any revenue from having lots of shops empty. We've knocked down big sections of the Moor and not had anything much there since 2008 up until just a couple of months ago with the opening of the new Moor markets. We've closed down Don Valley stadium. We've build Derek Dooley way so that commuters to other places can get there quicker, and get back home more easily. We've had the St Pauls towerblock built that lots of people still say looks a little too much out of place, and a few multi-story carparks that are underutilised due to lack of interest in the city centre shopping experience.

 

London is reaping the benefits of lots of money flowing into it for them to be able to invest and gain further inflows of money. Sheffield should have been using the period of the downturn to be able to rebuild stuff at a cheaper market rate (Cost of materials and labour is cheaper during a downturn!) so that we could then capitalise on the new assets during the recovery!!

 

Actually the data was from the last 12 months where the program contrasted the number of private sector jobs created around the country and contrasted that with the number of private sector jobs lost in a few places like Sheffield over the same period of time. Placed on a league table of cities and jobs created, Sheffield was just about at the bottom of the pile. Something like 68/72. The same economic factors apply to every city in the survey as they were all covered by the same period.

 

Perhaps you need to ask about why projects like Sevenstones haven't happened. Could it be that Sheffield is seen as a place where folks don't want to invest. I note that the developers moved their money to a similar development in Leeds which the survey put as a place where jobs are being created.

Edited January 28, 2014 by Riannon

[mactheblade 10]

Sheffield also suffers from a pathetic council that wastes our money at every chance i,e why has so much cash been pumped into hyde park flats,no-one is ever going to want to own a business there or live in one of the brightly coloured boxes should have knocked em down and replaced em with good quality homes and apartments.

 

---------- Post added 28-01-2014 at 16:41 ----------

 

And as for the poor souls who live in dore and totley having a terrible journey to work if they left for work earlier than the 9-5 crowd they would find the journey less congested

[Anna Glypta 10]

Sheffield also suffers from a pathetic council that wastes our money at every chance i,e why has so much cash been pumped into hyde park flats,no-one is ever going to want to own a business there or live in one of the brightly coloured boxes should have knocked em down and replaced em with good quality homes and apartments.

 

Be fair. They did bring the Student Games to Sheffield with all the prosperity that brought and despite still paying off the debt from building the facilities and tarting up the flats to house a load of freeloaders who attended, we have already managed to offload the Don Valley Stadium.

 

---------- Post added 28-01-2014 at 17:01 ----------

 

Predictably, the Council blame it all on the government.

 

Rather than themselves

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-14134973

[Olive 10]

However, someone once posted that Sheffield retains the highest number of university graduates, so it must be doing something right?

 

People still seem to be under this impression, like I said, this was being said 20 years ago (at least), and is still quoted, but no-one seems to be able to back it up with anything concrete. I'd be surprised if it's true now, indeed if it ever was, given the limited graduate opportunities here.

 

ps Sorry Cyclone, I've just seen the link you posted, thanks for that. Not sure how convincing the data is though, it would be good to see how Sheffield compares with other cities for student retention. I've plenty of anecdotal evidence for graduates staying on, but I've struggled to believe it's on such a big scale. Happy for it to be confirmed though! It would indicate that if so many students are staying on, a lot of them will be taking low paid work and looking for better job opportunities, which might explain why average earnings for Sheffield graduates aren't as high as comparable universities.

Edited January 28, 2014 by Olive