Unemployment rate hits 14.7%

The unemployment rate has been revised sharply upwards, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today.

In the final quarter of 2010 the seasonally adjusted rate of joblessness was 14.7 per cent, one percentage point higher than previously estimated.

As a result, the CSO has raised its estimate for the annual unemployment rate by more than 1 per cent. The last time unemployment reached the current highs was in April 1994.

The data show the number of people in employment continued to shrink in the fourth quarter, with 16,200 fewer people at work compared to the third quarter.

The rate of decline – at just under 1 per cent - is broadly in line with the average of the first three quarters of 2010, suggesting that a bottoming out of the shake out in the labour market is not yet at hand.

The Quarterly National Household Survey shows the number of people at work declined by 3.4 per cent, a fall of 64,500, to 1,823,200, in the year to the fourth quarter last year.

Last year the average employment level was 80,700 - or 4.2 per cent - lower than 2009. However, this follows a decrease of 8.1 per cent - or 171,000 - between 2008 and 2009.

The numbers of unemployed increased by 31,600, or 11.8 per cent, annually to 299,000.

The figures also showed the long-term unemployment rate increased from 4.1 per cent of the workforce in the final quarter of 2009 to 7.3 per cent to in the same period in 2010, a 20-year high.

Those out of work for the first time accounted for more than half of the total jobless, with 51.5 per cent of total unemployment in the fourth quarter of last year compared with 33.3 per cent in 2009.

Men account for the vast majority of unemployed at over 200,000. However, the rate of increase of unemployment for women was nearly three times that of their male colleagues at 21.9 per cent compared to 7.6 per cent.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions said the figures were "extremely worrying" and were proof that austerity was not working.

Congress economic advisor Paul Sweeney said the austerity programme drawn up by the previous Fianna Fail and Green coalition was likely to plunge Ireland into another year of a downward deflationary spiral.

"It makes no sense for the new Government to continue with policies that are guaranteed to cost more jobs. Exports alone will not be sufficient to counter the savage reductions in domestic demand," he said.

Davy analyst Conall Mac Coille said bad weather in December may have pushed down employment. "If so, some of the decline in employment may be temporary," he wrote in a note.

Business group Ibec said the rise was "a serious concern" and called for the Government to take urgent action to tackle the problem.  Senior economist Reetta Suonperä said the hospitality sector had suffered a significant loss in trade because of the weather, but industry had added a small number of jobs for the first time since the onset of the recession.

Construction remains a drag on employment. The sector accounted for more than 40 per cent of jobs lost in the year to the fourth quarter of 2010.