Irish Labour Force tops 2 million for first time

15 Sep 2005

The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed welcomes the increase in the labour force, which has now gone above 2 million for the first time in the history of the state. This is contained in the QNHS for Qtr. 2 of 2005, up to May of this year. The labour force has increased by 94,500 year-on-year and those in employment has increased by 93,000 on the same basis – the former is a record amount since the QNHS began and the latter is the highest since Q2 of 2000. “The increasing numbers in the labour force and in employment is encouraging news,” said Eric Conroy, INOU General Secretary. “It reflects continued high levels of immigration, especially from the new EU member states, and increased participation rates in the labour market, mainly among women”.

On the other hand, unemployment has increased by 1,400 over the year to 85,600 and long-term unemployment has increased by 1,300 to 27,600 over the same period. “Long-term unemployment has remained stuck above 26,000 since 2002, and therefore it will be difficult (but not impossible) for the Government to meet its National Anti-Poverty Strategy (NAPS) target to eliminate long-term unemployment by 2007”, said Mr. Conroy. It should be noted that these increases do not reflect the more recent increases recorded in the monthly live register figures or the current high incidence of redundancies.

“We also note that youth unemployment has increased by 1,500 to 26,600 over 12 months,” said Mr. Conroy. “This has pushed the unemployment rate for this category up to over 8% and nearly twice the national average. Additionally the number of youth long-term unemployed has increased by 600 in the year to 6,000. Therefore we in the INOU are calling for labour market measures to reduce youth unemployment, in the next round of social partnership”, he added.