Live Register at an all time high and rising

4 Feb 2009

This week has seen record breaking figures for the Live Register and redundancies. The seasonally adjusted Live Register figure now stands at an all time high of 326,100. While the redundancy figure for January 2009 was 142.7% higher than the same month last year at 6,708. This is the highest monthly increase ever and should this rate of increase continue then redundancies will reach 60,000 in 2009.

The standardised unemployment rate now stands at 9.2% - a figure not seen since December 1997. However, this figure could jump very dramatically as it is based on the latest Quarterly National Household Survey and changes in the Live Register since that figure came out. "In the current climate the lag in the QNHS and its publication is problematic as so much has changed since last summer," noted Bríd, "unemployment will head into double digits sooner rather than later we fear and addressing it presents very considerable challenges at present", she concluded.

The 'Smart Economy' document the Government published before Christmas outlines their labour market policy. The INOU is concerned that the level of investment needed to ensure that unemployed people can access employment in the future will not be forth coming; and that the economic growth envisaged in the 'Smart Economy' will not generate the levels of employment growth required to address our growing unemployment crisis.

For further information contact:
Bríd O'Brien, INOU Head of Policy and Media: (01) 856 0088 or 086 608 9641