Worry over youth unemployment

UNEMPLOYMENT among young people has reached worrying levels, the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU) said yesterday, as figures hit the highest level in three years.

There were 170,701 people out of work last month, an increase of 4,559 on the December figures.

With 10,000 fewer people at work compared to the previous 12 months, the unemployment rate has gone up from 4.4% to 4.5%, according to the Central Statistics Office.

“A particularly worrying development is that unemployment appears to be growing faster among under 25-year-olds,” said Eric Conroy, general secretary of the INOU.

“Many of these young people would have availed of the job opportunities open to them during the Celtic Tiger and may have left school with little qualifications.

"Now, as the economic climate has altered, these employees are the likely targets to be laid off.

“To prevent them facing long-term unemployment, supports and services need to be available to them to ensure they re-enter the labour market or undertake training.”

Yesterday, Government agency Forfás also reported that just under 8,000 industrial jobs were lost last year.

Companies supported by the IDA and Forfás created more than 23,000 permanent full-time jobs in 2002, but these were outweighed by job losses of just more than 31,000.

Forfás CEO Martin Cronin said while the economy slowed down last year from the performance of the previous 12 months, economic conditions remained robust through 2002 when compared to the rest of the EU.

He described 2003 as a challenging year for enterprise development, with sluggish growth in the main export markets, increased competition from low-cost locations and some erosion in Ireland’s competitiveness on the global stage.

“But there are signs of a deceleration in wages’ growth across the economy, and some strength in key sectors such as chemicals/pharmaceutical and international financial services,” he said.