Doubts cast on EU figures for jobless youth in Ireland

THE country’s main support organisation for the unemployed yesterday cast doubts on EU figures suggesting Ireland has the lowest level of unemployment for young people in the eurozone.

New statistics pointed to just below 6% of people under 25 years old in Ireland being jobless.

The overall figure for the EU was 15.5%, while in countries such as Greece (24.6%), France (21.8%) and Poland (21.3%) the problem was even more marked.

However, the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed (INOU) said it felt the figures — compiled by Eurostat, the European Commission’s statistics office — did not use the most recent baseline statistics.

Brid O’Brien, of the INOU, rejected the EU’s 5.9% Irish figure.

According to standardised figures from the Central Statistics Office, based on the last national quarterly household survey, the figure should be 8.2%.

Furthermore, while the EU placed Ireland in fourth place — regarding overall unemployment, with a rate of 4% — behind Cyprus, Denmark and the Netherlands, the INOU said the figure should be 4.3%.

Ms O’Brien said she had contacted Eurostat regarding the figures amid indications that the new statistics were not based on the most recent national quarterly household survey, but on the previous survey.

Eurostat reportedly advised that the figure for youth joblessness would be rounded up to 7.4%.

“We still have significant structural issues to address,” Ms O’Brien said, adding that measures were needed to ensure more people had skills for jobs available here. Eurostat estimated that 16.1 million people were unemployed in the EU in June this year.