CSO: One in 10 eligible workers now claiming social welfare

UNEMPLOYMENT is growing at pace never witnessed before, with one in 10 eligible workers now on social welfare, according to new statistics.

Yesterday the Central Statistics Office released its Live Register figures for the month of February, they showed 354,437 were drawing the dole. Of those, 21% were under the age of 25.

In 12 months the Live Register swelled by 87%, the largest annual increase in history.

There are double the number of people claiming job seekers’ benefits than on New Year’s day 2008.

This year the pace accelerated, in February an average of 950 signed on every day.

Finance Minster Brian Lenihan said yesterday the economy was “losing jobs at a frightening rate”.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen said another 100,000 could be signing on before the end of this year.

Social Welfare Minister Mary Hanafin said more civil servants would have to be transferred from other departments to process claims. The Office of Public Works is looking for new offices to cater for the volume of newly unemployed.

Ms Hanafin conceded welfare payments may be cut in the new budget as it costs e1.3 billion for every 100,000 out of work.

“Given it is such a huge expenditure, undoubtedly we are going to look at it very, very seriously but we have to be conscious of the most vulnerable,” she said.

After the figures were published, the Construction Industry Federation announced details of an emergency meeting to stem losses among its members.

It is gathering together the largest employers to come up with ideas in advance of next month’s supplementary budget.

This month the gender gap in those losing their jobs narrowed, which had been expected as soon as retailers and the service sectors began to cut staff.

The Labour Party’s Willie Penrose said this revealed job losses were now hitting every area of business, unlike other periods of depression.

He said unemployment was now “cutting a swathe of social destruction through the country” and stopping this needed to be the Government’s priority.

Fine Gael’s enterprise spokesman Leo Varadkar said the county was haemorrhaging jobs at a worse rate than the most depressed economies in Europe, Iceland and Latvia.

“There is a significant human cost to every job loss, with the spectre of mass long-term unemployment now looming. Yet the Government hasn’t done a single thing to address this crisis,” he said.