UNEMPLOYMENT FOCUS: DAY 2 - Cork jobless total has trebled since 2005

In the second of a five-day series, Eoin English finds that the jobless figures in the Cork City area have surged to almost triple what they were in 2005.

AS THE recession bit, the sight of hundreds of people queuing outside Cork city’s dole office on Hanover Quay, the queue snaking around the corner, over Parliament Bridge, and down Wandsford Quay, became a national symbol of the depth of the jobs crisis facing the nation.

The queue was at its longest between 2009 and 2010 and while it has shortened somewhat, mostly due to emigration, there are still over 26,000 on the Live Registerin the Cork Metropolitan area — almost triple the 2005 figure.