Skip to main content

Ireland Recession - Record Breaking Unemployment - Boom To Bust In 2008!

The end of July reports show...Number signing on Live Register rises by 10,600

The rise in the number of people claiming unemployment benefits over the last year has increased at the fastest rate since records began over 40 years ago.
In July, 10,600 people joined the Live Register bringing the seasonally adjusted total signing on to 226,000, on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office this morning.

The monthly increase is the second highest on record after March of this year. The number on the register is the highest in a decade.

Last month’s increase lifted the standardised unemployment rate to 5.9 per cent, the CSO said.

Over the last 12 months the number of people seeking unemployment benefits has risen by over a third with 63,647 people joining the register.

In July 6,700 males and 3,800 females joined the register.

Leo Varadkar, Fine Gael enterprise spokesman accused the Government of losing control of a deteriorating economic situation.

He said Ireland’s standard unemployment rate of 5.9 per cent was now far higher than the US at 5.5 per cent; Britain at 5.25 per cent or Japan’s 4 per cent.

For this reason he said “Ireland’s unemployment rate cannot be blamed on the global economic situation”, he said.

“While most western nations are standing out in the cold, Ireland is the only one without a jacket. This is a direct result of Brian Cowen’s mismanagement of the economy over the past five years,” Mr Varadkar said.

Alan McQuaid, senior economist with Bloxhams said although the unadjusted monthly rise of 17,429 in July was lower than the 19,000 increase in June, it was still higher than expectations.

“The slowdown in construction activity and the weakening manufacturing sector are becoming more pronounced in the data and the likelihood is that things will get worse before they get better,” he said.

Mr McQuaid noted that the data only covered the month up to July 25th and may fail to capture the number of construction lay-offs in the days before the August Bank Holiday.

“This may be picked up in the August data and so we remain pessimistic about next month’s figures”, he said.

The Live Register is not strictly a measure of unemployment as it includes part-time workers, seasonal and casual workers who are entitled to jobseekers benefit or allowance. However, it is a useful indicator of short-term changes in the numbers out of work.

Although the figures are for the month of July, they cover the period up to the last Friday of the month. Media interest in the figures means they were being released earlier than normal. Usually CSO data is released on the 1st day of the following month.
That report was by DAVID LABANYI - irishtimes.com




Jobless costing State €690m more as extra 10,000 join dole...
A MASSIVE €690m hole has been blown in the Government's finances after it emerged that over 63,000 more people had signed on the Live Register by last month than had done so by the same time last year.
The standardised unemployment rate is also on the rise, now standing at 5.9pc, with economists predicting it will climb to 7.5pc by the end of next year.

More than 238,000 signed on the live register this month, an increase of over 17,000 on June and 63,000 more than this time last year -- a jump of 36.5pc.

Grim
When adjusted for seasonal factors, the figures make just as grim reading: 226,000 signed on -- 10,000 more than last month and 63,600 higher than last year...
ISME, which represents small and medium-sized companies, said it was alarmed at the rapid rise in the "bleak" live register figures...Its chief executive, Mark Fielding, said the figures were "frightening" and that the labour market was in "freefall".

Fine Gael accused the Government of losing control of the deteriorating economic situation.
Report Fergus Black Irish Independent
How can Ireland have gone from the Celtic Tiger to this mess???

Popular posts from this blog

Ireland's Celtic Tiger Excesses...

'Bang twins' may never get to run a business again... POST-boom Ireland is awash with cautionary tales of Celtic Tiger excesses, as a rattle around the carcasses of fallen property developers and entrepreneurs will show. Few can compete with the so-called Bang twins for youth, glamour and tasteful extravagance. Simon and Christian Stokes, the 35-year-old identical twins behind Bang Cafe and exclusive private members club, Residence, saw their entire business go bust with debts of €9m, €3m of which is owed to the tax man. The debt may be in the ha'penny place compared with the eye-watering billions owed by some of their former customers. But their fall has been arguably steeper and more damning than some of the country's richest tycoons. Last week, further humiliation was heaped on them with revelations that even as their businesses were going under, the twins spent €146,000 of company money in 18 months on designer shopping sprees, five star holidays and sumptu

I fear a very different kind of property crash

While 80% of people over 40 own their own home just a third of adults under 40 do. This is disastrous for social solidarity and cohesion Changing this system of policymaking requires a government to act in a way that may be uncomfortable for some. Governments have a horizon of no more than five years, and the housing issue requires long-term planning. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform was intended to tackle some of these problems. According to its website its remit is to “drive the delivery of better public services, living standards and infrastructure for the people of Ireland by enhancing governance, building capacity and delivering effectively”. So how is the challenge of delivering homes for people in 2024 and beyond going to be met? The extent of the problem is visible in the move by companies, including Ryanair, to buy properties to house staff. Ryanair has, justifiably, defended its right to do so. IPAV has long articulated its views on how to improve supply an

Property Tycoon's Dolce Vita Ends...

Tycoon's dolce vita ends as art seized... THE Dublin city sheriff has seized an art collection and other valuables from the Ailesbury Road home of fallen property developer Bernard McNamara. The collection will be sold to help pay his debts. The sheriff, Brendan Walsh, is believed to have moved against the property developer within the past fortnight, calling to his salubrious Dublin 4 home acting on a court order to seize anything of value from his home to reimburse his creditors. The sheriff is believed to have taken paintings from the family home along with a small number of other items. The development marks a new low for Mr McNamara, once one of Ireland's richest men but who now owes €1.5bn . The property developer and former county councillor from Clare turned the building firm founded by his father Michael into one of the biggest in Ireland. He is the highest-profile former tycoon to date to be targeted by bailiffs, signalling just how far some of Ireland's billionai