Numbers out of work doubled in a year to 265,000

ONE in seven of the male workforce and one in 12 of the female workforce are now unemployed.

The Central Statistics Office’s (CSO) latest quarterly national household survey found that of the 2.2 million people of working age and able to work, 265,000 had no employment whatsoever up to the end of June 2009.

Overall, just 62.5% of people between the ages of 15-64 were in employment.

There were 264,600 people unemployed in the second quarter of 2009, an increase of 137,900, or 108.8%, on the same period last year.

Male unemployment increased by 102,700 (122%) and female unemployment by 35,100 (82.4%).

Construction again stands out as the sector haemorrhaging the biggest number of jobs. In the past year, 92,800 people lost jobs, compared with 33,900 in industry and 32,900 in the wholesale and retail trade.

Surprisingly, six of the 14 employment sectors have shown an increase in employment. Those areas are education; transportation and storage; information and communication; financial, insurance and real estate activities; public administration and defence; and human health and social work.

The CSO found that as well as a drop in those who were able to get work, the fall in the workforce could be attributed to a drop in the numbers of people of working age in the state.

“Up to the start of 2008, this demographic effect had been adding 60,000 or more to the labour force on an annual basis, primarily driven by net inward migration. With the decline in inward migration the demographic effect has declined through 2008 and has fallen to zero as of Q2, 2009.”

The number of non-Irish workers in the labour force dropped by almost 10% over the year to 325,400. Of those, 274,600 are working, while 50,800 are unemployed, more than double the figure for Q2 last year. Non-Irish workers account for 14.2% of all people over 15 years in employment.

IBEC economist Reetta Suonpera said: “Three sectors — construction, wholesale and retail, and industry — account for over 80% of jobs lost over the year. The impact of the recession is most sharply felt in the domestic sector of the economy. Manufacturing, with the exception of one or two sectors, is also suffering severely from a combination of the global economic crisis and Ireland’s lost competitiveness.

“The need for further labour market supports is now acute. We must in the first instance prevent job losses to the greatest extent possible. The scale of the €250 million package announced over the summer is inadequate. The second priority must be to provide training supports for those who have lost their jobs, to help them find alternative employment once the economy recovers.”