FACEBOOK IRELAND MANAGING DIRECTOR LEAVES FOR AUDIO PLATFORM SOUNDCLOUD - Facebook Ireland managing director Sonia Flynn is leaving the group this summer to join Swedish audio platform company SoundCloud in the newly created role of international vice-president.
Ms Flynn has been in charge of the social media giant’s fast-growing Irish operation since 2011, says the Irish Times. “The past six years at Facebook’s international headquarters have been both exciting and professionally challenging. There have been many highlights in that time as we grew from a small group to what is now an incredibly talented team of more than 500 people in Dublin, responsible for areas such as safety and community operations, sales and engineering,” Ms Flynn said in a statement. The US group announced that Ms Flynn will be succeeded by Gareth Lambe, currently sales, planning and operations director at Facebook EMEA. Mr Lambe, who has been with Facebook for four years, previously ran its advertising operations and also served as acting head of office for Facebook Ireland in 2013. “Music is a huge passion for me,” Ms Flynn said, “and the opportunity to join the SoundCloud team combines technology with music.” SoundCloud said Ms Flynn would help lead the company’s continued growth by identifying, assessing and acting on new market opportunities.
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SPENDING UP 4.3% AS CONSUMERS SPLASH OUT - Consumer spending is up 4.3% in the last year with online sales growing three times faster than in-store purchases. A new Irish consumer spending index from Visa Europe tracks in detail how Irish consumers are spending their money, says the Irish Independent. It showed that sales of food, drink and cigarettes saw particularly strong growth in April and are 9.2% higher than a year earlier. Spending on household goods rose by 8.6%, clothes and footwear purchases were up 6.4%, and consumers spent 6.1% more in hotels, restaurants and bars than they did a year ago. Spending on health, education, transport and communication also rose, but miscellaneous goods and services saw a slight dip. Online spending was up 7.8% since last year while face-to-face purchases rose by a more modest 2.8%. The report is based on Visa Europe's giant database of consumer purchases using Visa debit or credit cards, but adjusted to also take account of cash purchases. It covers all the main areas of consumer spending including food, utilities, travel, clothing and household goods but does not cover rents, mortgages or savings.
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NUMBER OF PROFESSIONAL JOB OPENINGS AT RECORD LEVEL - The number of job opportunities for professionals reached a record level last month, as multinational and Irish employers stepped up recruitment in Dublin and other regions, according to a survey of top job vacancies writes the Irish Examiner. There were 13,445 job openings available to professionals in April, up sharply from the 9,475 opportunities available a year earlier, with jobs in finance, human resources, IT and the supply chain sector leading the way, the Morgan McKinley Monthly Monitor found. The improving market for top jobs continues to be led by Dublin, but offers in manufacturing and agri-food industries are driving job creation in the west and mid-west. The buoyant market for these jobs is also reflected in the 1% drop in the number of professionals seeking work in the past year. The monitor recorded a rise of 18% in the number of IT jobs available, with many of those jobs becoming available in the multinational and banking sectors.
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GERMANY LANDS EARLY BLOW AGAINST BRITAIN'S HOPES FOR EU TREATY CHANGE - David Cameron’s hopes for a far-reaching overhaul of Britain’s relationship with the EU were dealt an early setback on Tuesday when Germany said the UK’s partners would not be rushed into changing the bloc’s treaties to meet its reform demands. In a sign of a broader distrust of London’s motives, Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, also lashed out at George Osborne’s “silly” and “unnecessary” record of intervening over the eurozone crisis. Many in Brussels believe London intentionally sought to undermine monetary union, Mr Schäuble noted writes the Financial Times. The chancellor of the exchequer was given this sharp reminder of the uphill task facing the newly elected Conservative government on the same morning Mr Cameron was telling his cabinet he needed treaty change to sell a new deal on Europe to the British public. Mr Osborne, appointed London’s lead negotiator on Europe after last week’s election, was told clearly by his German counterpart that Britain would not be able to hitch its reform demands to a revamp of the eurozone. After discussing London’s ideas for reform with Mr Osborne on the margins of the EU finance ministers’ monthly meeting, Mr Schäuble said any reopening of treaties would not occur for some time. Changes to the eurozone that Berlin is immediately seeking would be achieved “more step by step”.
