Government puts on brave face despite surge in dole figures

DESPITE yet another spike in the numbers claiming the dole, the latest redundancy figures from the Government show a marked decline in the rate at which people are losing their jobs.

The latest live register figures from the Central Statistics Office show the numbers signing on rose by 6,600 from April to May bringing the total to 439,100. Men accounted for 4,400 or two thirds of the increase.

There was a consequent rise in the jobless rate from 13.4% to 13.7%. In the final quarter of 2009 the percentage was 13.1%.

The increase between April and May was a particular blow given that the previous month had shown a decrease in the number of dole claimants.

However, at almost the same time as the CSO was releasing its latest figures, other statistics were emerging from the Government which gave some grounds for optimism.

They showed that the 5,032 actual redundancies in May were down 36% on the 7,948 in the previous year. The total figure for the first five months of this year (28,587) was 19.6% less than for the corresponding months in 2009 (35,559).

Nonetheless, opposition parties were still critical of the Government’s efforts to tackle the unemployment crisis.

Speaking after the publication of the CSO’s live register figures, Fine Gael’s enterprise spokesman Leo Varadkar said the Government’s lack of a jobs and stimulus package has never looked more damaging.

“This is the highest number of unemployed people ever in Irish history with 439,100 now signing on,” he said. “Another 1,650 people joined the dole queues every week in May. It’s a truly appalling situation, with overall unemployment now at 13.7%.”

Mr Varadkar accused the Government of spending the last month “lying about its employment strategy and spinning against the opposition parties instead of taking action to stem the jobs haemorrhage”.

“This week Ernst & Young predicted that unemployment will remain at 10% for at last another five years,” he said. “Even bleaker was its prediction that an entire generation will be blighted by high jobless levels.”

However, Enterprise Minister Batt O’Keeffe pointed out that the number of redundancies notified last month was lower than any single month in 2009 and the lowest since December 2008.