THE NUMBER of people in Ireland who believe the impact of the economic crisis has reached its peak on the job market has increased significantly in a new survey published yesterday.
Results of the latest Eurobarometer public opinion survey – carried out in May for the European Commission, before the latest crisis in the euro zone – found some 31 per cent of people questioned believed the crisis had peaked. This was an increase of 10 percentage points on the previous such survey.
Some 60 per cent of people questioned here believed the worst was still to come on the economic front, however.
Ireland’s figures were at the lower end of the optimism scale, with just residents of Cyprus, Greece and Portugal below us in their respective assessments of whether the worst had passed.
Just 27 per cent of those questioned in Cyprus believed the crisis had reached a peak, with 63 per cent believing the worst was still ahead.
In Greece – which was in the thick of bailout talks as the fieldwork for the survey was being carried out – just 19 per cent of people believed the worst was over.