Young ‘suffer most by being jobless’

The head of the Nevin Economic Research Institute has warned that the percentage of eligible people in work here is stalling, and it is vulnerable young people who are suffering most.

Tom Healy pointed out that the “employment rate” stopped rising in the first six months of this year and has even fallen. The employment rate is the proportion of people aged 20-64 (the so-called working age population) who are in paid employment.

The rate here for the first quarter of 2014 was 66%. That compared to an average across the EU of 68%. Other member states such as Sweden, Germany, Britain, and the Netherlands were more than 75%.