Live register on the rise again

1 Jun 2011

Less than a month after the Government published its Jobs Initiative, the Live Register is on the increase again. According to today's release from the Central Statistics Office there are now 443,400 people on the seasonally adjusted Live Register, which is an increase of 2,600 people. "Looking back over the past few months, this is the single biggest increase since August last year," said Bríd O'Brien, Head of Policy and Media with the INOU. The unemployment rate has risen to 14.8%: a year ago it was 13.2%.
Another striking figure from today's release is the growing number of people on the Live Register for more than a year. In May 2010 there were 126,065 people on the register for more than a year: this figure has now increased by 40% to 176,334. A year ago this figure represented 29% of the Live Register: today it represents 40%.
The INOU refutes recent calls from the OECD that the best way to address increasing long-term unemployment is to cut social welfare payments to people who find themselves caught in this position. "Ireland has lost a staggering number of jobs over the past few years, what unemployed people need is hope, hope of finding decent employment," said Bríd. "Threatening to cut unemployed people's payments will not get people back to work; it will just make life much harder for an increasing number of people."