Live Register starts to climb again

2 Jun 2010

In recent weeks we have been told by the Taoiseach and other Ministers that we have turned a corner with the implicit message being that this is positive. Today the Central Statistics Office released the Live Register figures for the month of May and indeed we have turned a corner but not for the better. After three months of hovering around 433,000 people, the Seasonally Adjusted figure has jumped by 6,600 to 439,100. The Standardised Unemployment Rate has increased to 13.7%: it had been static at 13.4% from January to April.

Last week in Athlone, the INOU held its Annual Delegate Conference where delegates called on the Government to develop as a matter of urgency a Jobs Strategy "that will ensure access to decent work for all". Instead the Government introduced the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2010 which proposes to disqualify people from Jobseekers Allowance payments if they refuse an offer of "suitable employment". In the current climate of few job opportunities where will people find a 'suitable job'? The Bill also proposes to cut unemployed people's social welfare payments if they refuse an offer of a training place. Feedback received by the INOU indicates that the range of courses on offer is insufficient to meet unemployed people's needs.

At last week's Conference delegates noted the urgent need for a broad range of agencies and providers to work effectively together to ensure that unemployed people can access the most relevant information and improve their prospects of securing a job. "Such an approach by Government would be far more beneficial to unemployed people, than threatening them with increased financial hardship," said Bríd O'Brien, Head of Policy and Media with the INOU.