Redundancies jump dramatically, Live Register down slightly---

2 Feb 2007

So what does it all mean for unemployed people?
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment issued figures on redundancies for the month of January and these were 2,807. This is an amazing increase of 21.3% in comparison to January 2006 and a 35% increase on December. Given recent stories in the media it will come as no surprise to see that Cork had the biggest number of redundancies at 321, followed by Galway 180, and Dublin County at 179. In terms of sectors the two biggest loses were in ‘other services’ at 989, and ‘other manufacturing’ at 723.

What’s striking about some of the recent losses is that they have been in the higher end of the labour market: the kinds of jobs Ireland continues to seek to build its economic development.

The first Friday of the month is also the day the CSO issues the Live Register. December the seasonally adjusted figure had increased by 300 while in January it was down by 400 and now stands at 156,300. Ireland’s unemployment rate remains at 4.5%.

At present many commentators from economists to politicians appear to regard this level of unemployment acceptable as we have reached full employment. This perception must be challenged as Bríd O’Brien, the INOU’s senior policy officer queried “how can we claim to have full employment when there are still a significant number of people who are long-term unemployed and when so many people are losing their jobs?”