Unemployment flat lining

3 Nov 2011

The seasonally adjusted Live Register figure for October 2011 increased over the month to 447,100. Over the past year this figure has moved between 441,300 to 448,700: effectively it has flat lined. It is clear that Government responses to date have been ineffective in addressing this unemployment crisis.
Ireland badly needs a co-ordinated and well thought through Jobs Strategy: one that identifies potential job growth across a wide range of sectors. A strategy that ensures when unemployed people undertake education and training courses that they will provide them with the right skills to be able to access the types of jobs Ireland says it wants to create.
Such a strategy should not only look to the private sector as a potential employer but should also look to the State itself and the community and voluntary sector. Public sector reform must not be boiled down to cuts: indeed at a time of austerity it can be too easy to equate reform with retraction and value for money with cutting expenditure.
Ireland must invest in its future: this is imperative if real hope is to be given to the numbers of people who are unemployed; and the young people leaving education wondering will they ever find work in Ireland. Proper policy planning, implementation and monitoring will be absolutely critical to make real progress.