Another 11,400 join dole queue in June

THE NUMBER of people claiming unemployment benefit rose by 11,400 in June, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The latest seasonally-adjusted Live Register shows that 413,500 people claimed Jobseekers’ Benefit or Allowance payments in June, taking the estimated rate of unemployment to 11.9 per cent, up from 11.8 per cent in May. However, the rate of increase at which people are signing on slowed down for the fifth successive month.

Economists suggested yesterday that the pace of job losses may have peaked in January, when the Live Register swelled by record 33,000 people.

Ulster Bank economist Lynsey Clemenger said the smaller 11,400 rise in June was a “welcome positive surprise”, representing further improvement compared to the 13,500 rise in claimants in May.

The Live Register of unemployment claimants, which includes some part-time and casual workers, is up 197,700 on the same month in 2008, meaning that the number of claimants has increased 92 per cent over the past year.

Fine Gael employment spokesman Leo Varadkar warned that the rising number of Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants indicated that the problem of long-term unemployment was deepening. Jobseeker’s Allowance is a means-tested payment paid to people who have been claiming Jobseeker’s Benefit for more than 12 months or who did not qualify for the benefit based on their PRSI record.

Fergal O’Brien, economist at employers’ group Ibec, also said it was vital that the Government was more ambitious in its plans for internships for graduates and the long-term unemployed. “Measures to protect existing employment must also remain a top priority,” he said.

Separate figures published yesterday by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment show that there were 6,813 redundancies under the redundancy scheme in June, compared to more than 8,000 in May.

However, redundancies in 2009 are still running 160 per cent ahead of last year.

In the first six months of the year, there has been a total of 42,724 redundancies under the official scheme, compared with a total of 16,403 by the same stage in 2008.

Yesterday saw further jobs shed from the economy, with news that up to 140 jobs are to be lost at the Smurfit Kappa plant in Cork and Waterford-based Bausch Lomb announcing it would be seeking up to 120 redundancies.

Alan McQuaid, economist at stockbroking firm Bloxham, said current labour market conditions remained extremely weak.

“It is difficult to be anything but pessimistic regarding the jobs outlook in the short term,” he said, adding that wage deflation was “the key to preventing further job losses”.

However, Manus O’Riordan, chief economist and head of research at trade union Siptu, said further wage cuts in light of the rising unemployment figures would “only drive the economy into deeper recession” and that lobby groups and commentators who use the unemployment crisis to repeat their calls for wage cuts were pursuing “bankrupt” policies.

“They should be more careful what they wish for,” he said, citing the 9 per cent annual slump in consumer spending in the first quarter of the year, which has had a knock-on effect on jobs in the retail sector.