No, Minister, there is a recession

Saturday 22nd November 2008, 9:59AM GMT.

A BUILDER who has had to lay off four men has challenged the Treasury Minister to come down and tell them that there is no recession in Jersey.

Bob Le Neveu, who specialises in concrete and drainage work, says that he has never seen it so bad. The St Brelade-based builder has also attacked those responsible for handing over the Esplanade Quarter development at the Waterfront to firms from outside of Jersey.

It was revealed by the JEP recently that developers Harcourt, who are currently locked in a multi-million-pound legal battle over the site, were planning to bring in 500 workers for the project. Mr Le Neveu spoke out this week in response to Senator Terry Le Sueur’s statement that he had seen no evidence to suggest that Jersey was heading for recession. The minister said that the economic future looked uncertain and expected a slow-down.

Mr Le Neveu has been in the business for 30 years and has a workforce of around 15, but had to lay off four men last week. He said: ‘I cannot ever remember making guys redundant before. It is not easy. It is such a bad time of year in the run-up to Christmas because there is no way they will get a job – well, not in the building industry, anyway.’

• Picture: Bob Le Neveu. Picture by Rob Currie (00601714)

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1
Paul

November 22, 2008 at 11:05 am

I am sorry for the workers who have lost their jobs.

Because we have a robust Finance Industry our GDP may not fall below zero and hence techically our total economy will not go into recession.
If we take out the Finance Sector (which contributes approx 70% of our GDP but only employs approx 30%) the other sectors of the economy will(are) fall into recession and so impacts on the majority.
The Finance Sector will be hit as employers look to save costs – it is anticipated that 20% of Finance workers worldwide will lose their jobs, what impact this will have on Jersey is yet unknown.
The one thing that is guaranteed is there will be more people losing their jobs in the next 6-12 months. The last thing these people need to hear from politicians is that “life is still rosy!”
I think this just goes to show that some Politicians (eg Terry Le Sueur) in Jersey are not just out of touch but also have no empathy for their electorate.
I am not a big fan of Guy de Faye but I give him credit that he does at least use the bus and talk with us “common folk”. He does not drive a Bentley to the States Assembley and never come in contact with the great unwashed – as I’m sure many other COM members do!!!

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2
Mogit

November 22, 2008 at 11:34 am

How’s this for a comment, a manual worker was recently told that his job was not important and in fact one 21 year old male/female could generate far more income for the finance industry in one year than any local building firm, besides there would only be one pension to pay in the future, not 10/20 or more!
Based on this assumption we are not needed!!!

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3
Sara

November 22, 2008 at 12:02 pm

I find it strange that you have one area of manual employment by the States rejecting 3.2% pay increases and another area in the private sector laying people off all in the same week.

Sometimes people need to learn what side their bread is buttered.

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4
bruce

November 22, 2008 at 5:09 pm

like the huge majority of his states colleagues and other delusional individuals, mr le sueur seems to think that if he says something is the case, then it makes it so. we all look forward to welcoming terry to the real world when he decides to pay a visit.

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5
Trevor

November 22, 2008 at 9:04 pm

Bring your prices down and you may get business.

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