Unemployment at ‘crisis’ point across South-East

Unemployment in the South-East of the country is at crisis point after almost a decade and a half of stagnation in the regional economy, a wide-ranging new report has found.

The South-East Economic Monitor, published by researchers at Waterford Institute of Technology, finds that the region continues to be characterised by “persistently high levels of unemployment, deprivation and significantly lower job quality” in comparison with other regions.

The problematic regional economic performance is exacerbated by a lack of investment in third-level education and decades of “under-representation” on the part of the IDA whose remit is to attract foreign direct investment into the country, despite greater focus from the state agency recently.