A QUARTER of the young people in Ireland are out of work as unemployment continues to rise faster here than in most other EU countries, according to the latest figures.
The number of people under 24 years of age not able to find a job has increased four times faster in Ireland than the EU average over the past year.
Ireland has the fourth highest number of young people unemployed, at 25.5%, more than double the percentage of a year ago. Just Spain, Hungary and Sweden are higher.
The Labour party’s youth wing called for new measures to tackle youth unemployment, including temporary nationalisation of the banks to get credit flowing again; tax breaks for employers who take on additional workers from the live register; a work experience scheme for graduates and apprentices and retraining for those who have lost their jobs.
The country’s unemployment generally, at close to 12% in May, is the fifth highest in the EU, while the contraction in employment is the second highest after Latvia at -7.5% over the past 12 months.
The quarterly EU labour market review shows that the drop in joblessness from 9% to 6.7% achieved over three years from 2005 has been wiped out in just 14 months.
Spain has the highest rate at 18.7% while the Netherlands has the lowest at 3.2%. It has increased only slightly over the past 12 months.
The labour markets have held up relatively well in Italy, France and Britain despite the recession being deeper than the EU average.
There are even a considerable number of job vacancies in these countries and in Britain it is relatively high at 1.6%. Germany has the highest number of job vacancies and unemployment has increased only marginally in the past few months.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Friday, July 24, 2009
