Numbers signing on grow to more than 443,000

THE SEASONALLY adjusted Live Register rose by 2,600 in May, bringing the total number of people signing on to more than 443,000, new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO)have shown.

The increase pushed the standardised unemployment rate slightly higher in May, to 14.8 per cent compared with 14.7 per cent a month earlier.

The Live Register also includes casual and part-time workers. The official unemployment rate is measured by the CSO’s Quarterly National Household Survey, which showed the rate was 14.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.

There was a monthly rise of 2,200 in the number of men signing on, with an additional 400 women joining the register last month. In the year to May, the number of men signing on fell by 0.7 per cent, or 2,095, to 288,290, while the number of women rose by 3.5 per cent, or 5,120, to 152,657.

The number of casual and part-time workers rose by 7.7 per cent over the year, with 84,933 signing on. Workers of this type now account for 19.3 per cent of the register. Unadjusted figures on the register showed a total of 440,947 signed on in May, a rise of 3,025.

Analysts had been expecting a decline in the Live Register, although they did note that any decline in unemployment rates would be more likely to reflect increased emigration and a greater number of people staying on in education than a fundamental improvement in employment.

Bloxham Stockbrokers said it believed any improvement in job prospects would not be seen until the latter part of the year at the earliest.

“In addition to the high levels of benefit claimants, a further problematic feature of the Irish jobs market is the make-up of the pool of unemployed workers. An increasingly large proportion of total claimants is being accounted for by those who are long-term unemployed, ie those who have been continuously registered for benefits for over a year,” Ulster Bank economists Lynsey Clemenger and Simon Barry said.

“The total falling into this category has risen sharply over the downturn, as workers who have lost their jobs have found it extremely difficult to regain employment.”

The number of people who have been signing on for more than a year rose to more than 176,300 in May, a 6,900 increase on the figure recorded in April.

“The number of such individuals has now doubled since October 2009, as the share of long-term claimants in the total has gone from 21.2 per cent at that time to 40 per cent in May of this year,” Ulster Bank said.

“While labour market activation measures targeting the long-term unemployed were a feature of the Government’s recent Jobs Initiative, numbers highlight the extent of the problem in this area.”

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions said the increase in the register was an indication that austerity measures had failed and was “clear proof” of the need for a policy change at both the European and domestic level.

Ictu’s economic adviser Paul Sweeney said the rise was a “direct consequence of official policy”.

“Deflation is simply not working and is leading directly to job losses. We have seen domestic demand crash by over 25 per cent in less than three years. That translates into thousands of job losses and thousands of families in very difficult circumstances,” he said.

“This is not the route to recovery, but leads precisely in the opposite direction. It is time that the authorities at the EU level and here at home stopped taking counsel from the advocates of austerity. It doesn’t work.”

REDUNDANCY FIGURES FOR MAY: SERVICES SECTOR TAKES BRUNT OF LOSSESTHERE WERE 4,117 redundancies in May, taking the number of job losses that qualify under the Department of Social Protection's redundancy payments scheme to 21,238 for the year to date.

The services sector took the brunt of the losses with 2,502 of the redundancies occurring at companies in financial, transport, communications and other service sectors.

There were 552 redundancies in the metal manufacturing, engineering and other manufacturing sectors, while the construction sector continued to be badly hit, with 779 job losses in building and civil engineering.

A further 209 redundancies occurred in distributive trades during the month.

The department’s figures came as the Central Statistics Office revealed that the estimated unemployment rate for May had risen to 14.8 per cent, up from 14.7 per cent a month earlier.

The number of redundancies in the first five months of the year is down almost 25 per cent on the volume recorded in the same period last year, although the rate of decline has slowed in recent months, as companies continue to lay off staff.

So far in 2011, there have been 9,275 redundancies in the department’s “other services” category, most of which are

likely to relate to job losses in Ireland’s struggling retail sector.

Some 364 part-time employees also qualified for payments.

The annual number of redundancies under under the scheme peaked in 2009 at 77,001, falling back to 58,731 last year.

LAURA SLATTERY