Unemployment falls sharply

Unemployment fell sharply last month, bringing the number of people claiming dole to its lowest level for more than three years.

Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that the live register fell by nearly 5,000 in April. This left the number claiming unemployment benefit at 154,200, some 13,000 below levels recorded a year earlier.

This translates into an unemployment rate of 4.2 per cent, down from 4.4 per cent in October, when it was last officially measured.

The CSO pointed out, however, that the April figures may have been slightly skewed by the timing of Easter in March. It is traditional for casual educational workers to sign on over the Easter period and sign off when term restarts, therefore boosting the live register for a number of weeks. This appears to have happened again this year, with the register rising by 3,100 in March before posting the April decline shown in yesterday's numbers.

Overall, the CSO said, the live register fell by 1,700 between February and April.

The trend prompted a warm welcome from the Minister for Employment, Micheál Martin, who said that the Republic continues to outperform many of its EU partners on the jobs front.

He warned against complacency however, saying that "we must be constantly aware of the competitiveness issues facing the Irish economy".

The sizeable fall in the register was also well received by the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, but general secretary Eric Conroy said the decline must be placed in context.

He highlighted this month's loss of almost 500 jobs at Waterford Crystal and the redundancy programme at IBM in Dublin as "further proof that the manufacturing sector is haemorrhaging".

A breakdown of April CSO figures shows that the live register fell in all parts of the Republic last month, with the largest decreases coming in the southeast and southwest.

The only county to record an increase in unemployment in April was Leitrim.

Bloxham chief economist Alan McQuaid said that, despite the Waterford and IBM cutbacks, the outlook for the labour market remains "very favourable".