Jobless figures fall for September

THE number of people signing on fell last month ending a six-month rise in unemployment.

But there are almost 21,000 more people signing on now than at the beginning of the year a rise of almost 15%.

Labour Party's education spokesman Joe Costello said the drop in September was not of much help to the growing ranks of the unemployed.

"Little comfort can be drawn from the modest decline in the live register figures for September, especially against the background of the 37% increase in the number of redundancies reported over the first nine months of this year and the deteriorating economic situation reflected in the exchequer returns."

The figures published yesterday by the Central Statistics Office show that 161,432 people signed on in September, over 12,000 less than in August a drop of 7%.

But Deputy Costello said the numbers on the live register normally go down in September as schools and colleges reopen and more jobs become available.

"The figures which show an increase of 15% in the past year are likely to resume their upward trend, as the impact of the government cutbacks and various closures already announced, but not yet implemented, take effect," he said.

The CSO figures show there were 20,882 more people signing on so far this year, a rise of 14.9%. "More and more workers are now paying the price for the government's ineptitude through the loss of jobs. And those who do lose their jobs are facing real hardship as a result of the refusal of the government to increase the totally outdated and inadequate levels of redundancy payments," Deputy Costello said.

His comments coincided with a nationwide demonstration yesterday by workers protesting over poor redundancy packages.

Figures show that the fall of 12,131 in the Live Register in September was made of 8,649 female workers and 3,482 male workers.

The CSO figures also show:

l all regions experienced a fall in September, the largest in the Mid West (8.7%) and the Mid-East (8.5%), and the lowest decreases in Dublin (5.3%) and the South East (6.4%).

l North Tipperary experienced the largest fall (12.3%), while Wexford had the lowest drop (4.6%)

Monaghan is the only county in the country that hasn't experienced a rise in the number of people signing on for the year to September.

The largest increases occurred in Meath (35.7%) followed by Kildare at 24.3%.