ESRI predicts jobs crisis will force 120,000 to quit Ireland

AS many as 120,000 workers will quit the country over the next two years, driven out by the jobs crisis, a report out yesterday said.

The Government think tank, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), said 70,000 left the country in the year to April 2010 and warns that a further 50,000 will have gone by April 2011.

In its latest economic forecast the ESRI says the worst is over for the economy but the “modest” recovery out up to the end of 2011 will be characterised by a failure of the economy to produce any boost to the jobs market.