Unemployment, an Election issue

4 May 2007

Today the CSO issued the Live Register figures for April 2007. 158,200 people are on the seasonally adjusted register: which is up 700 on the previous month but down 200 on the same time last year.

In terms of trends within the economy and their potential impact on unemployed people it is useful to look at a broader range of statistics. For example, on Wednesday the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment released the latest redundancy figures. The redundancy figure for April was up 15% on the same month last year; and to-date 2007 figures are running 13% ahead of 2006. If this rate of redundancy continues 2007 is heading for a record year: hardly good news for the next Government.