THE announcement yesterday that the Lloyds banking group, which currently employs 600 people in the Island, is to shed 180 jobs was, to say the least, dramatic and disturbing.

Even though the jobs are to be phased out over a period of more than two years, the loss of the better part of a third of a workforce must be indicative not only of radical restructuring but also substantial problems at the heart of the organisation.

Those problems have, of course, been widely publicised at a national level. The trials and tribulations of Lloyds TSB and its acquisition, Halifax Bank of Scotland, have been analysed in detail by the media.

But the suggestion that the group’s plans for job cuts here in Jersey can be linked to wider issues will do little to comfort Islanders who find themselves facing redundancy. However, for the Island as a whole the wider context is all-important. The job losses should not be taken as a sign of a more general meltdown in the finance sector. They have relatively little to do with the underlying state of the Island’s economy.

That said, it is undeniable that there will be knock-on effects from the redundancies at both the personal, social and
economic levels – though it can also be argued that a leaner, fitter Lloyds TSB and HBOS will continue to make a considerable contribution to commercial life as it restructures and, as its Jersey banking director, Martin Fricker, has said, maintains its commitment to this community.

Meanwhile, in spite of yesterday’s announcement and the smaller but nevertheless significant round of job cuts at Ogier, the government would claim to have its eye on the ball and to be prepared to meet the challenges of redundancy and other effects of the global economic downturn.

The magic words are ‘fiscal stimulus’, the expression used to describe what will be done with the £44 million that has been committed to help take us through this undeniably rough period.

Exactly how the millions will be used is still emerging, but it would make sense to use some of the money to help those who, through no fault of their own, are finding themselves out of work. Any measures that enable people to return to the workforce and resume making an economic contribution are clearly to be encouraged.