Jobless total rises 71% in a year
The number of people claiming jobless benefits jumped by 71% last year and the total is set to breach the 300,000 barrier in coming weeks, alarming figures showed today.
According to official figures, the 12-month increase is the biggest since records began 40 years ago putting the Live Register near levels last seen 15 years ago when 302,179 signed on.
The shocking Central Statistics Office figures come a day after Dell announced it is shedding 1,900 manufacturing jobs in Limerick – a move which will impact on hundreds of other businesses in the Mid-West.
In the past week, it emerged that 800 jobs are under threat at Waterford Crystal and uncertainty hangs over the future of 700 workers at Tara Mines in Co Meath.
Now aircraft maintenance firm, SR Technic has lost a lucrative contract from Gulf Air but Siptu said it was not known what impact it would have on the firm’s 1,200 Irish-based jobs.
The CSO said 291,363 people in total signed on the Live Register for benefits last month.
The Labour Party said the latest jobless figures cap what has been one of the most dismal weeks in Ireland’s economic history and it seemed inevitable that the 300,000 figure will be breached this month.
“You have to go back to the 1980s to see levels like this and never before have we experienced such a rapid increase in numbers on the Live Register,” said employment spokesman Willie Penrose.
Ulster Bank economist Lynsey Clemenger predicted the overall unemployment rate will exceed 10% in 2009.
“This will represent the highest rate since 1997, however it is still below the high double-digit rate of unemployment in the mid-eighties, when the labour force was half the size,” she said.
Fine Gael calculated that 510 jobs were lost every day in October, November and December.
Deputy leader Richard Bruton said: “This means that 2009 won’t just see a winter of discontent – the whole year will be bleak as the spectre of widespread unemployment returns to haunt Ireland.”
His party called for tax breaks for employers to take on new staff and for the national pay deal to be suspended.
“Fas must be transformed into a rapid-reaction agency capable of providing a public works scheme for the unemployed,” Mr Bruton added.
The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises (ISME) group called for a National Action Plan to address cost competitiveness and other factors that impact on business.
Mr Penrose added: “We also need far more effort put into providing new educational and re-training opportunities to ensure that the talents and skills of those who have lost their jobs are not lost to the Irish economy,” he added.
The Irish Exporters’ Association yesterday claimed that declining exports in 2009 could lead to up to 35,000 job losses.
The Youth Work Ireland group also reiterated calls for the Government to address youth unemployment which it claimed has almost doubled in the past year.
“There must be a refocusing of agencies such as FÁS on youth unemployment and a concerted effort to keep young people in school longer to prevent a drift into long term unemployment,” said spokesman Michael McLoughlin.
“Despite the massive economic growth of the last number of years we failed as a society to deal with the cohort of young people leaving school early and now these young people are very vulnerable in the labour market,” he added.
