Analyst: 450,000 to be on dole by year end

ECONOMISTS have predicted that, even though the rate of redundancies is slowing, by the end of the year a further 17,000 people will have joined the 433,000 currently claiming the dole.

Figures published by the Central Statistics Office yesterday have shown once again that the rate at which people are joining the dole queues are slowing, albeit that following February’s decrease in the numbers on the live register, last month it increased by 600.

The 433,000 people currently on the register is 18% higher than the corresponding number at this point last year.