Immigrants worst hit by jobs crisis

THE Dublin region and immigrants have continued to be worst hit by the deepening jobs crisis, while Taoiseach Brain Cowen’s home area of Offaly showed the largest by county percentage increase of those on the live register last month.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) live register figures showed an increase to 371,271 in March from 354,437 in February, a monthly increase of 16,834 or 4.7%.

This was reflected in all regions but the largest percentage increase was in the Dublin region, with 5,244 people joining the register in this area over the last month, an increase of 6.4%.