Union warns of more job losses

BUSINESS leaders and economists have forecast even darker times ahead for employment, with predictions that dole queues will get a lot longer before they get shorter.

The main employers’ union pointed to a surge in women signing on.

The number of people signing on overall rose by 19,000 last month.

Live Register figures show nearly equal increases in the number of men and women unemployed in June, leading to fears job cuts were spreading beyond the male-dominated construction sector.

The number of males out of work has increased by nearly 42,000 in the past year while the number of females has increased by more than 12,000 — with almost all of this increase occurring since January.

IBEC senior economist Fergal O’Brien warned the pattern of job losses was changing. The increased female job losses signified a “widening impact of the slowdown”, he said.

But economists with Ireland’s largest stockbroking firm predicted even worse unemployment figures next year because of falling exports and construction activity.

The unemployment rate in June reached 5.7%, with figures from the Central Statistics Office showing there were 217,000 people out of work.

However, Davy Stockbrokers forecast an average unemployment rate of 6.2% in the final months this year and a shocking 7.5% by the end of next year.

Bankers last night warned the litmus test in keeping dole queues short would be how newly signed-on people were managed.

“Previously, the fall in construction activity had been the smoking gun, though the economic slowdown is now much broader than that,” said Ronnie O’Toole, chief economist with National Irish Bank.

It was crucial young unemployed people were interviewed by FÁS for job opportunities after three months on the dole, advised NIB, so that the “cyclical rise in unemployment doesn’t develop into deeper, structural, social problems”.

The latest Live Register figures show there were 48,200 people under 25 years of age unemployed at the end of last month. This was an increase of 5,500 on May, a significant 29% of the overall increase in unemployment numbers.

For young males alone, the increase in unemployment figures was 55% in total.