Slight drop in numbers drawing dole

NEW Live Register figures have provided hope that the worst of the economic crisis is over as the number of people signing on the dole fell in most parts of the country last month.

Overall, a slight 0.4% drop in the total number of people on the Live Register nationwide was recorded in March.

Figures published by the Central Statistics Office yesterday reveal that only Dublin and the mid-east, which covers the capital’s commuter belt, showed an increase in the number of people out of work last month.

The west and mid-west regions recorded the biggest reductions in the numbers signing on — down 1.2%.

The CSO figures also shows that the number of people on the Live Register only increased in six of the 26 counties in the Republic — Longford, Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow, Tipperary and Carlow.

Clare and Kerry recorded the biggest monthly Live Register reductions — down by about 2%.

Although the national decline in the number of people claiming the dole is welcome, the reduction may be explained by an increase in emigration as well as people returning to further education.

On an annual basis, the number of people on the Live Register in March has risen by almost 18% — with the mid-west region incorporating Limerick, Clare and north Tipperary incurring the biggest increase at more than 20%.

By county, the highest annual rise jobless total was found in Tipperary (up 25.6%) followed by Carlow (25.2%), Cork (23.1%) and Meath (22%).

The lowest annual increase occurred in Kerry (10.3%) followed by Longford (10.8%) and Galway (11.9%).

Although the Live Register is not a strict measure of unemployment as it also includes part-time, seasonal and casual workers who claim entitlements, it is still seen as a useful barometer of jobless trends.

The latest CSO figures also show that the number of foreign nationals on the Live Register fell by 1.5% to just more than 80,000 last month compared with a 0.2% reduction in the number of Irish citizens signing on to 355,080.

But over the past 12 months, the number of Irish nationals on the Live Register has increased by almost 21% compared with a 6.5% rise among non-Irish nationals.

Those results would also suggest that some immigrants have decided to return home from Ireland because of the poor labour market.

Commenting on the figures, the Dublin Chamber of Commerce said they were finally beginning to highlight the true level of job losses in the greater Dublin area.

The chamber’s spokesperson Aebhric McGibney said previous Live Register figures had appeared to under-represent the scale of redundancies in the capital.

Mr McGibney said other data had shown that four out of every 10 redundancies in Ireland in the past year were in Dublin.

The most recent CSO quarterly national household survey, which is the official measure of unemployment, indicates that a total of 267,400 people were out of work at the end of 2009 — a 58% increase on the 2008 total.