Live register figures spur warning over economy

THE Government has been warned that if it does not respond to the economic crisis, it will only lengthen and deepen the recession.

Bloxham Stockbrokers issued the warning on the back of the latest live register figures, which showed the number of people signing on at the live register now stands at 235,100.

The figures released by the Central Statistics Office showed the rate of unemployment growth is increasing as, in the year to August 2008, there was an unadjusted increase of 73,178 (42%) compared with an unadjusted increase of 63,647 (36.5%) in the year to July 2008.

The statistics show that in August there was a rise of 7,400 men and 1,700 women signing on the register.

Bloxham’s Alan McQuaid said the figures confirmed the deteriorating labour market trend of recent months.

“Apart from the sharp fall in construction employment, other sectors like manufacturing, retail, and financial services are starting to feel the pinch too. Redundancies notified to the Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment are up 36% on an annual basis in the year-to-date and the likelihood is that things will get worse before they get better on the jobs front,” he said.

Mr McQuaid said that while the live register is a useful barometer of developments in the labour market, it is not designed to measure unemployment, as it includes part-time workers and seasonal and casual workers entitled to jobseekers benefit or allowance.

“Still, it is probably fair to assume that over 90% of the extra numbers on the live register in recent months can be attributable to people who have lost their jobs.

“The poor live register figures are the third awful key numbers on the economic front in the past 24 hours following the sharp deterioration in the exchequer finances in the first eight months of the year, and the record low hit by the services purchasing managers’ index in August.

“The Government needs to respond to what is fast becoming an economic crisis and sooner rather than later. Failure to do so will lengthen and deepen the extent of what is now very clearly a recession,” he said.

Irish Small and Medium Enterprise chief executive Mark Fielding said: “With over 23,000 redundancies already announced this week and a record increase in the live register, we have now reached a crossroads with regard to the direction of the economy.

“We can either continue to watch job losses mount... or the Government can bring us in a different direction by addressing public sector expenditure, tackling the business cost environment and introducing innovative policies to revitalise the economy.”