Despite Live Register figures, reducing jobless will be slow

A senior economist has said that even though the unemployment rate has fallen from 14.9% to 14% in the space of a year, it is likely to be a “slow process” to get the jobless rate down further.

Alan McQuaid of Merrion Stockbrokers was speaking following the publication of the latest Live Register figures by the CSO which showed there were 417,593 people claiming the dole in April, down 12,408 from a year earlier.

When seasonally ad-justed, the total fell from 436,800 to 426,900 over the same period.