Neil McDonnell: More job losses are likely despite high employment 

The cumulative impacts of Government policy change this year will see business overheads increase by close to 20%.

"Unfortunately for workers, it is in the CSO’s monthly unemployment figures that we are likely to see the true cost of Government intervention. The recent job losses in the Tung Sing and Nash19 are not the last, they are the first," writes Neil McDonnell.

The unemployment figures for December were published by the CSO last week and show a slight increase in the unemployment rate to 4.9% from November’s rate of 4.8%.

Like political polls, the individual monthly results are less important than the trend. We hit a two-decade low of 4.1% in February 2023, and since then, we have seen a gently increasing unemployment curve.