Live Register rises by over 6,000 in May

The Live Register increased by 6,600 people in May, the largest monthly rise since August of last year.

New figures published by the Central Statistics Office today show there were 439,100 people signing on in May - a new record high - compared to 432,500 the previous month.

It means the rate of unemployment has risen to almost 13.7%.

Ulster Bank economist Lynsey Clemenger said the increase was bigger than had been anticipated.

"It is important to point out that this is coming from a situation where the rate remained steady at 13.4% for the four preceding months," she however added.

"Indeed, looking at the first five months of this year the unemployment rate has risen by 0.5%. This compares with a 3% jump in the corresponding period of 2009. So while the situation remains weak and is still deteriorating, the rate of deterioration is clearly easing back."

Employers' group IBEC called the figures "disappointing".

“The seasonally adjusted increase of 6,600 in the number of claimants reflects the underlying weakness in the labour market. Redundancies, for instance, have continued at an elevated level in 2010," IBEC economist Reetta Suonperä said.

“However, in light of more positive manufacturing and services sector indicators, we expect that unemployment is now nearing its peak. Progress made to date in improving competitiveness is helping the recovery, but more needs to be done. Government must do its part in getting the cost of doing business down."

Also reacting to the figures ISME, the Irish Small & Medium Enterprises Association, accused the Government of ‘"funking" its responsibility by failing to implement policies to get people back to work and to secure existing employment.

In a statement ISME said it was "shocked" that the PRSI Exemption Scheme, announced in the last Budget, has still failed to be implemented even though labour costs are identified as a key barrier to employment creation.

“We are in the throes of the worst economic crisis in living memory and it is critical that we stem the number of job losses," said ISME Chief Executive Mark Fielding.

"Unfortunately, the Government is ignoring this fact and is contributing to an already dreadful situation by refusing to implement coherent policies to address the issue. A perfect example of this is the delay in the introduction of the Employers’ PRSI exemption initiative”.

"A generation will be lost to unemployment and emigration unless the Government treats the jobs crisis as a national priority," Mr Fielding said.

Avine McNally of the Small Firms Association said what was "particularly concerning" about the rise was that "our ability to create new jobs has been severely damaged by losses to competitiveness in recent years."

Brid O'Brien from the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed also described the figures are disappointing.

"When you look back three, four or five years what's very striking is that for most of the 'noughties' - up to about mid-2007 - unemployment was about 4-4.5%," she said.

"Since then it has been increasing in leaps and bounds and we are now at 13.7%.

"So it's a massive increase."