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| 3,500 jobless join queue at Ikea for just 280 posts |
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MORE than 3,500 job-seekers attended two open days in Ballymun over the weekend in search of jobs at the massive new Ikea furniture store due to open in July.
On Saturday morning a queue stretched down the road from the Ballymun Civic Centre before doors opened at 10am.
Senior management and supervisor jobs are already filled, along with 122 'co-worker' or general staff-positions.
But with a further 280 full and part-time jobs on offer there were plenty of enquiries from people of all different working backgrounds.
John Corcoran, from Swords, had spent seven years working for Cellular Services in the mobile phone industry before his company went into liquidation. Now he was one of the first in the Ikea queue.
"I finished up two weeks ago. We knew the week before Christmas that redundancy was on the cards," he told the Herald.
"I'm trying to get into the logistics end of things here in Ikea, and I'm hoping my experience in my old job will stand to me," he added.
Paul O'Neill, from Saggart, is also hoping his experience will help. "I was in retail management for 15 years before becoming a truck driver, and now I'm trying to get back into retail but jobs are hard to find," he said.
Retail
"My background is in retail and secretarial work. I recently tried to get back to retail but there were no jobs," said Pamela Williams from Dublin 13.
"When you see a company advertising 280 jobs you don't pass up that opportunity," she added.
Former carpenter Scott Coyle spent 12 years working in construction before being laid off nearly six months ago.
"We had our son arrive three months ago. Talk about timing," he smiled. "The construction thing came to a head all of a sudden. It was fine and then there was no work and it was dog-eat-dog," he added.
Mr Coyle hopes his experience in carpentry and assembly could be an asset in a company that is reliant on made-to-measure units. "I'm hoping they will need some people to assemble the units for the demonstrations in-store," he explained.
And it was a family affair for mother and daughter Linda and Amy McDermott from Finglas.
"I worked for nine years as a secretary and have been out of work for three weeks," Linda said.
Sales
"And I was a hairdresser for three years and have been out of work since January," echoed Amy.
"We will apply for some positions in sales and hope it works out," they explained.
At 31,500 square metres, the Dublin outlet will be one of Ikea's flagship stores and will include a restaurant and a creche.
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