Unemployment over 5%

7 Mar 2008

Today the Live Register showed a year-on-year increase of over 30,000 people, or 19%, on both the seasonally adjusted and unadjusted figures. The seasonally adjusted figure now stands at 187,900, the highest it has been since August 1999.

On Wednesday 5th March, the CSO issued the latest Quarterly National Household Survey. This report covered Q4 in 2007, the months September to November. Unemployment rose by 12% in comparison to Q4 2006. 'Other production services' and 'construction' were the two areas that employed less people in Q4 2007 then in Q4 2006. Economic developments and commentary since would suggest that employment in these sectors would be down considerably in the next quarter.

"The Live Register gives a more current picture of what is happening", noted Bríd O'Brien, Senior Policy Officer with the INOU, "and it comes as no surprise with the rise in redundancy figures issued earlier in the week that 63% of the monthly increase in the Live Register was under 'Jobseekers Benefit'". She also noted, "79% of the monthly increase of over 8,000 people were male which is unsurprising given how male dominated construction employment is".

According to the QNHS Q4 2007 seasonally adjusted unemployment stood at 4.6%. The Standardised Unemployment Rate captures the impact of trends in the Live Register on this figure and today the SUR stands at 5.2% - a figure last seen in September 1999.