Unemployment rate falls to 14.3%

THE UNEMPLOYMENT rate fell in September, its first monthly decline since the start of the year. Live Register figures released by the Central Statistics Office show that the standardised jobless rate declined from 14.4 per cent in August to 14.3 per cent in September. Between April and August the rate had risen steadily from 14.1 per cent.

September’s seasonally adjusted figures showed a decline of 5,400 in the numbers in receipt of jobless benefits on a month earlier. That brought the total number of people signing on to 442,200.

In unadjusted terms there were 437,441 people signing on the Live Register, a monthly fall of more than 30,000. Typically, large numbers of students sign off in September as they return to full-time education.

The claimant count has been broadly stable since the autumn of 2009. In the previous two years it trebled as the worst of the employment shock was felt.

Both male and female claimants have remained steady in 2011, with men accounting for just under two-thirds of the total.

However, the composition of Live Register by duration of claims continues to change.

The number of long-term claimants stood at 183,399 – or 41.9 per cent of the total – in September. A welfare recipient who is signing on for a year or more is classified among the long-term jobless. Just under a third of recipients were in that category a year ago.

Davy stockbrokers pointed to the scale of the employment problem in a note yesterday. Chief economist Conall Mac Coille said rising unemployment has sharply reduced the ratio of those in employment to claimants.

“For each Live Register claimant, there are now only four people in employment within the Irish economy. This ratio was 13 during the peak of the boom but is now at its lowest level since 1993,” he noted.

Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton yesterday said she believed the economy was “bottoming out”.

However, the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association said the situation remained dire.

“Some efforts have been made through the jobs initiative and JobBridge internship programme, to address unemployment, but the reality is that these initiatives are not radical enough and do not provide enough incentives for employers to add to their employment numbers,” Isme chief executive Mark Fielding said.

“With companies doing their damndest to keep costs down, there is no incentive at present to take on new employees, unless there is a contribution from Government towards the costs.”

Chambers Ireland called for labour market reforms to be fast-tracked to produce “more favourable” conditions for job creation.