A DISAPPOINTING December for the jobs market has cancelled out some of the recent reduction in the number of unemployment benefit claimants.
Some 5,200 people joined the Live Register last month, data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.
There were 444,000 people on the seasonally adjusted register in December, up by around 14,000 on the same point a year earlier. The monthly increase followed three consecutive months in which the number of claimants fell.
The CSO estimates that Ireland’s unemployment rate in December was 13.4 per cent, up from 13.2 per cent in November.
The estimated unemployment rate averaged 13.3 per cent last year, making it the weakest year for the Irish jobs market since 1994.
Over the course of 2010, an average of 1,040 people joined the seasonally adjusted Live Register each week, the CSO said.
Separate figures published by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation show there were an average of 1,129 job losses each week under its redundancy scheme, bringing the total for the year to 58,731.
The number of redundancies was down 24 per cent on 2009, suggesting that the rate at which jobs are being lost is stabilising.
However, the case for a recovery in the labour market in the near future was undermined yesterday by the uptick in fresh Jobseeker’s Benefit and Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants.
As the jobs crisis entered its third year, the number of people classified as long-term unemployed – or claiming payments for more than one year – increased in 2010 by more than 60,000.
The CSO’s regional breakdown shows that the largest percentage increase last month was in the southeast region, followed by the west, with the smallest percentage increase recorded in Dublin.
Minister for Social Protection Éamon Ó Cuív said adverse weather conditions in December may have affected certain sectors such as construction, prompting more people than usual to sign on. Most of the new claimants in December were men.
The Minister cited Government job initiatives such as Tús, which is to provide 5,000 short-term job placements in community organisations, as evidence that the Government were prioritising the creation of jobs.
However, Fine Gael enterprise spokesman Richard Bruton said there was “a solid core of people who are out of work but are not being offered any opportunities”.
The signs of emigration were “unmistakable”, he added, and had likely contributed to an annual drop of 3,100 in the number of claimants aged 25 and under.
Labour Party enterprise spokesman Willie Penrose said the “grim new year news” showed there was “still a huge problem” in the domestic economy. “Unfortunately the first week of 2011 has also been marked by a series of job loss announcements, which suggest that the figures may again rise even higher,” he said.
“Mass unemployment is the political epitaph for this Government,” Mr Penrose added.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) said Ireland’s deflationary economic policies would exacerbate the crisis in 2011. Paul Sweeney, Ictu’s economic adviser, said it was clear the rate of unemployment would be much higher were it not for the resumption of mass emigration.
“Emigration is only a safety valve for the Government. For those forced to leave Ireland, it is a shameful betrayal of their ambitions,” he said.
Alan McQuaid, economist at stockbroking firm Bloxham, described the “sharp jump” in claimants in December as “disappointing”, while Ulster Bank economist Simon Barry said the data pointed to “a soft end to a very weak year for the Irish labour market”, although he noted that the number of claimants in December still fell shy of the August peak.
The CSO figures also show that the number of part-time and casual workers who are entitled to the Jobseeker’s payments has increased 11 per cent over 2010 to 82,058 workers.
Over the year, the number of Irish nationals on the Live Register increased 4.1 per cent to 360,434, while the number of foreign nationals decreased 1.1 per cent to 76,645.
