16/06/2005 10:47:16 am
The Road To the Future. Jobs and companies, especially in traditional munfacturing industry, are moving from Western Europe. This seems to happen more and faster than ever before. People worry intensely about this; that worry is one main reason behind the recent French no, for example. An opinion poll in Sweden put this as the main worry for a majority of the people. But basically, what is happening is no different than before - it′s just faster. Old jobs have always disappeared and new ones have come instead. Depending on how good the national climate for business is, the new jobs have usually been much better. Jobs in the expanding service sector are replacing the old industry jobs. In several countries not enough, unfortunately. In Sweden, employment has decreased for four years in a row. But Ireland shows the road to the future - again. There, employment in manufacturing industry has decreased by 10 % since 2000. And during the same period, total employment rose by 10 %. For every job lost, two new were created. A good business climate creates success in a globalised world - not a big state with closed borders.