OECD: Irish unemployment likely to rise further

Unemployment in Ireland is likely to rise further in coming months and could even approach 15% by the end of 2010 if the recovery fails to gain momentum, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said in a report today.

The group's latest Employment Outlook report said that from December 2007 to July 2009, 166,000 individuals joined the ranks of the unemployed and the unemployment rate rose by 7.8 percentage points to reach 12.5%, the second-highest level in the OECD after Spain and the highest percentage increase in the unemployment rate witnessed during the current crisis