Ireland bucks job trends as EU nations falter

Ireland had one of the biggest increases in employment in the EU in the last number of months, but the eurozone generally saw a drop in employment.

The figures for the three months to June this year increase fears that the slight recovery with an upturn in GDP is not translating into job creation.

The grim figures coincided with a reinforced message from EU finance ministers and euro chief Ollie Rehn that countries must to take steps to balance their books.

Ireland, together with Portugal and Latvia, added the most jobs and were also among the countries that suffered huge job losses over the past five years.

Cyprus saw the most dramatic loss of jobs at more than 2% as their banking crisis hit hard and the country requested a bailout.

Spain continued to lose jobs while the Netherlands registered a decrease.

Employment was static in the EU 27 generally while the eurozone countries experienced a drop of 0.1%. Over the last year jobs were lost in agriculture, manufacturing, construction, property, transport, food services while the biggest increase was in information and communication services.

Employment commissioner László Andor described the increases in Ireland and Portugal as encouraging, but warned the economic recovery was very fragile.

“Active labour market policies such as hiring subsidies, reduced taxation and social security contributions on low-paid labour, individualised job-search support and training are crucial at this stage of an emerging recovery to help move people into jobs and prevent the long-term unemployed or those finishing education from giving up on seeking work,” he said.