Calls for action as unemployment soars

Opposition politicians called on the Government to take action after statistics published today showed that the number off people out of work last year soared by a record 70,000.

Officials figures revealed twice as many men than women were unemployed by December, as the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reported the largest fall in employment since records began in 1975.

Its quarterly national household survey found of the 2.2 million people in the country available to work, just over two million were holding down jobs.

The unemployment rate was 7.7%.

Damien English, Fine Gael’s labour affairs spokesman, called on the Government to adopt an action plan to keep people in work.

“These figures show the true scale of the unemployment crisis,” he said.

“The worst falls happened in the last quarter of 2008. This is when the Government should finally have acknowledged the scale of the problem facing Ireland and drawn up a national employment plan.”

Labour’s Willie Penrose said the unemployment figures mirror the shocking trends reflected in the Live Register figures over recent months of a massive haemorrhage of jobs.

“We now have the highest Live Register figures ever recorded and the largest ever annual decrease in employment ever seen since the Household Survey started in 1975,” said Mr Penrose.

“We 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.”

The CSO said more than 170,000 were unemployed in the last quarter of 2008.

Of those who lost their jobs during the year 54,200 were men – an 85% rise - and 15,400 were women, up 41%.

Nearly 70% of men signing on the dole had been working in the construction sector.

The CSO found:

- Full-time employment fell by 93,900 – 76,600 men and 17,300 women.

- The largest drop in full-time jobs were in construction (48,800), production (15,500) and retail (14,000).

- A 7,000 rise in those employed part-time, all of which was attributable to males (+7,800).

- Non-Irish nationals working in the State fell by 18,700 to 316,000 – with 33,300 unemployed.

The household survey officially records the unemployment rate, compared to the Live Register which accounts for numbers – including part-time workers - claiming social welfare,

The CSO’s latest Live Register showed those signing on the dole, including part-time workers, reached a record 327,861 last month, driving the unemployment rate to a staggering 9.2%.