Live Register Turns Around-But Redundancies Remain High

10 Oct 2005

The INOU welcomes the September live register figures, which show an adjusted monthly decrease of 2,700 to 156,400. This has bucked the recent upward trend in this figure. However the statistic does not include recent large factory closure announcements such as Hospira in Co. Donegal or fully take into account the actual redundancies reported in August and September of this year.

There were 3,875 redundancies in the two months at the end of September. This is over 21% higher than the corresponding period in 2004. “This means that we are facing the fourth year in a row of annual redundancies around 25,000 or 500 jobs lost week,” said Eric Conroy, General Secretary INOU. “Therefore, the numbers on the dole can only go higher in the months ahead” he added.

The INOU is concerned at the continuing loss of manufacturing jobs in Ireland contained in these redundancy statistics, and the regional imbalance in the jobless figures. “We must be very mindful of our cost competitiveness position in the globalised economy” said Mr Conroy. Many companies are closing down divisions or the whole operation and moving to low-cost economies in Asia and Eastern Europe.
“This cannot be allowed to continue or it will have serious repercussions for employment in Ireland in the years ahead”, he added. Manufacturing job losses are also having a disproportionate impact on rural areas compared with large urban areas. A large factory closure in a rural town can have a devastating effect on the local economy. “The National Spatial Strategy must be operated wholeheartedly by the government to enable even economic development throughout the country”, said Mr Conroy.