Labour shortage issues have replaced unemployment as economy concern

SERIOUS issues involving labour shortages have replaced large scale unemployment as the major concern for this economy, according to the latest edition of the Economy of Ireland: National and Sectoral Policy Issues.

Edited by John O’Hagan and Carol Newman of Trinity College, it is 30 years since the first edition. This is the ninth edition and highlights the major changes this country has gone through since the emergence of the Celtic Tiger 10 years ago.

This edition paints a very different picture to ten years ago before the economy took off. In 1995, the seventh edition was deeply concerned about the level of long-term unemployment which was then at 9%.