Ireland leads the way in EU with lowest female unemployment

IRELAND’S female unemployment rate is now the lowest of all the 25 European Union states, a new statistical study shows.

The unemployment rate for women across the EU ranged from 3.8% in Ireland to 19.1% in Poland.

Britain has the second lowest female unemployment rate (4.5%) while both the Netherlands and Denmark tie for third at 5%.

Employers’ group IBEC expressed delight at the figures.

IBEC European and social policy director Maria Cronin said it was an “excellent” achievement and reflected what was happening in the Irish labour market generally.

While Ireland’s general unemployment rate, at 4.4%, is the lowest in Europe, the statistical tables compiled by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Community, shows the rate for men is slightly higher at 4.7%.

The unemployment rate for men in both Luxembourg and Denmark is 3.8%, while Poland and Slovakia are at the higher end of the scale, with a rate of over 15% in both countries.

The statistical tables also show that almost a quarter of women in Ireland work part-time, compared to just 5% of men; just over 30% of managers are women; and women generally earn 11% less than men.

Over 88% of women in Ireland completed second level education compared to 83% of men, with 55% of women compared to 42% of men going on to third level.

But, said Ms Cronin, while there were very high employment participation rates for younger women in Ireland, rates for older women were not as high.

“This would not show up in the overall unemployment rate because older women would not necessarily be seeking work,” she pointed out.

“Many of the older women would have been forced to leave work because of the marriage bar or lack of access to free education.”

General secretary of the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed (INOU), Eric Conroy, said he was delighted that Ireland now had the lowest female unemployment rate.

As well as being better educated, women were better at picking up the pieces after losing their jobs.

He was concerned, however, that many of the new jobs becoming available and being taken up by women were in the general services industry and poorly paid.

“They are not going to lift people out of poverty,” he said, warning this was a development that could widen the gender pay gap.