Commentators fall for full employment myth
In our view, this only fuels the sense of complacency in addressing the issue. Are the current 82,400 unemployed people to be forgotten about?
This is a worrying development especially since this figure is an underestimation because the International Labour Organisation’s definition of unemployment is so narrow.
The picture is bleaker also for those who are long-term unemployed. The number who are over 12 months unemployed now totals 26,300. Given the misery of being without a job for more than a year, nobody can claim that this is reflective of full employment.
The attitude that ‘unemployed people do not want to work’ is not only untrue, as can be seen by the dramatic decreases in unemployment levels in the last ten years, but it also does little to dispel the stigma associated with unemployment.
Employers can be prejudiced against unemployed people, thereby increasing their dependency on social welfare and increasing their experience of poverty and social exclusion.
As for being ‘unable to work,’ many of those currently unemployed may be distanced from the labour market and require assistance to help them re-enter. Such assistance can come in a variety of forms, including through the community employment and jobs initiative schemes.
There will always be an element of unemployment as people move between jobs. However, the number who are long-term unemployed is substantial, so full employment is nowhere near being attained.
The Government has a long way to go in reaching its target of eliminating long-term unemployment by 2007.
Such complacency will mean that these 26,300 people with varying skills, education and talent will be marginalised further.
Eric Conroy
General Secretary
Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed
8 North Richmond Street
Dublin 1
