Through the fog of recession, opportunity beckons for some, while others wallow in paralysis. Jobs, jobs, jobs were the three buzz words of the recent election campaigns, but there is precious little evidence that the body politic is primarily focused on getting people back to work. Out in the real world, jobs can be used not as a buzz word but a handy weapon at a time when the economy is going through the floor.

The retailing giant Tesco appears to be using the times we live in to squeeze savings from its employees. Last week, the trade union Mandate served strike notice. The retailer wants to break an employment agreement signed in 2006.

Workers' hours in 19 stores are to be cut, costing some workers up to €100 a week. That kind of sum is buttons to the type of commentators calling for a reduction in social welfare, but for those working for little more than the minimum wage, it spells devastation.

The company claims that the "reduction in staffing hours has been as a result of adverse trading patterns and has been in accordance with our agreements with the trade unions", but Tesco has form. A few months back, the company tried to pull a fast one on employees who were being forced to transfer from one store to another in Cork. There was an attempt to row back on conditions, although Tesco backed off under pressure.

Unlike other companies, Tesco is not in financial difficulty. However, being a so-called progressive entity, it can't resist the opportunity to shave some costs by driving down its wages bill. In a progressive society, this sort of thing would not be tolerated. In the economic order which delivered the western world to its current station, it is regarded as good business. Fear is the key. Wave around the recession like a big stick, and the peasants can either come to heel or take a hike.

It's different strokes for different titans of the world order. Michael O'Leary cuts jobs and blames the clowns, fools, idiots and assorted imbeciles who stand in the way of Ryanair making bigger profits. In announcing a reduction of flights out of Shannon and Dublin on Wednesday, Micko blamed it all on a €10 tourist tax introduced in the last budget.

The resultant job losses have nothing to do with a decline in economic and leisure activity across Europe. They have nothing to do with a general reduction of air travel at a time of recession. No, it's all down to an extra €10 a skull, the price of a couple of pints, a "crazy, stupid, tourism suicide tax" that might impinge on Ryanair's profits.

When will these fools realise that if it's not good for Ryanair's bottom line, it's not good for the country. O'Leary could bore for Ireland in his attempts to use as cannon fodder those losing their jobs in order to hit out at anybody not contributing as much as he believes they should to Ryanair's profits.

While jobs are a useful tool for some at this time, they appear to be beyond the ken of those charged with providing an environment to create them. Despite the jobs, jobs, jobs waffle of election campaigns, there is precious little evidence that the matter is concentrating minds.

Each week, the manufactured outrage in the Dáil, and the conflicting opinions on comment pages, deal with the banks and the public finances. The received wisdom is that these issues must be sorted before we can even think about jobs. Is that really the case or is there an ideological agenda at work here?

The most immediate problem is to stem the alarming job losses at the moment, but there are even more important long-term issues that need to be addressed now.

During the bubble years, one in five males worked in the construction sector. This surge of employment masked the long decline of manufacturing jobs. Now, construction has, to a large extent, gone the same way. When it returns to relative health it will be in reduced circumstances.

Where will the new jobs come from? Not everybody has, or can have, a third- or fourth-level qualification. Education is vital, but high-end jobs will only account for so much of the workforce.

During the bubble years, we had what was regarded as full employment. Yet the live register still numbered around 150,000, accounting for 5% of the workforce. Without proper concentration on where the future for jobs lies, the long-term unemployed rate will be higher, with construction and manufacturing ruled out as big employers. Unless somebody gets the finger out fast, we are heading for a situation where at least 200,000 will have little hope of ever attaining proper employment. The figure could be much higher.

Where is the effort to address this looming problem? The energy being expended in addressing various elements of the financial crisis is ignoring the most human element of it.

In 2005, a report, Towards a National Skills Strategy, was published, yet there has been precious little follow-on. An implementation group is understood to have met only once since its establishment.

During the bubble years, the future was deemed by the government to be never, never land, somewhere out in the ether beyond the next election.

It's taking a long time for that mindset to change, and the cost is adding up all the time.

mclifford@tribune.ie