New car sales up 28 per cent is driving employment growth
Autotrade report on figures produced by SIMI (Society of the Irish Motor Industry) which show that so far this year, new car sales are up by 28 per cent. The confidence evident in January has continued into February with a 21 per cent increase in car sales.
The light commercial vehicle market, which is a good sign of activity in the SME sector, saw an increase in sales of 41 per cent in February with sales of Heavy Goods Vehicles, often a barometer of activity in the wider Economy, seeing a 68 per cent increase.
Recovery is delivering new auto industry jobs
At the end of last year, there was a clear indication of recovery in the sector when the jobs figures from the CSO showed 1,000 more people working in the Motor Industry now compared to the middle of 2013. “This trend is continuing and developing further over the last two months,” according to industry recruitment specialist, RecruitAuto.ie.
Alan Nolan, SIMI Director General also confirmed this saying: “As a result, employment in the sector has also been stabilising and February saw the formation of 37 new companies in the Motor Industry in February.”
Meanwhile, figures in the Insolvency Journal show the national trend for company insolvencies over the past three years, shows a considerable drop last year compared to the previous two years. Strangely, in the auto industry there was an increase last year on the 2012 figure, which had fallen dramatically over the 2011. However, the general feeling is that insolvencies among auto industry will drop further this year, and those that will happen may largely be due to outside factors such as property dealings by the principles.
Total Insolvencies by Industry: Comparison from 2011 to 2013
2011 – 1,638 National Total ( 57 Auto Industry Total)
2012 – 1,684 National Total ( 30 Auto Industry Total)
2013 – 1,365 National Total ( 42 Auto Industry Total)
(Blog reproduced from Autotrade.ie)