Unemployment now 5.9%

30 Jul 2008

"Today's report makes for stark reading," noted Bríd O'Brien, Head of Policy and Media with the INOU. "And it is unlikely that with the slow down in the economy that we have seen the end of the rise yet," she continued.

In a new development the CSO issued part of their usual Live Register report for the month of July. Basically it includes only the State figures: on Friday they will publish the full report, which will include the regional and local breakdowns.

The seasonally adjusted figure now stands at 226,000, which is a staggering 39% or 63,600 increase over the same month last year. The monthly increase over June 2008 was 10,600, which is the second highest monthly increase ever recorded.

Standardised Unemployment Rate now stands at 5.9%: it last stood at this figure in April 1999. However one needs to go back to July 1998 to find a similar number of people on the Live Register. This reflects the fact that in the period June-August 1998 there were 1.56m people in employment, while according to the latest Quarterly National Household Survey covering the period Dec-Feb 2008 there were 2.135m people in employment.

"To maintain this level of employment and to ensure that unemployed people and others can access employment demands concerted action on the part of the State otherwise the situation will deteriorate further," Bríd concluded.

 

For further information contact:
Bríd O'Brien, INOU Head of Policy and Media: (01) 8560088 / 086 608 9641