Celtic Tiger era over as 25,000 jobs lost, says economist

THERE were 25,000 jobs lost in the last 12 months, indicating the Celtic Tiger is no longer with us, a leading economist warned yesterday.

Chief economist with IIB, Austin Hughes, described the latest unemployment figures as very disappointing and indicated the economy might be dipping again.

“It is a bad number, it probably could have been worse but we don’t expect it to get better any time soon,” he said.