State’s jobless rate drops to 11% as Live Register falls

The number of people signing on the Live Register fell by 3,500 or 0.9 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis in October, according to new figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

This brings the seasonally adjusted total to 371,400. I

The CSO said the standardised unemployment rate in October fell to 11 per cent, compared to 11.1 per cent in September.

In unadjusted terms there were 358,630 people signing on the Live Register in October. This represents an annual decrease of 37,882 or 9.6 per cent.

According to the figures, the number of long-term claimants on the Live Register in October totalled 170,892.

The number of male long-term claimants decreased by 110.2 per cent in the year, while females increased by 1,347, giving an overall annual decrease of 11,509 or 6.3 per cent.

In October, 52.3 per cent of all claimants on the Live Register were short-term, compared to 54 per cent for the same month a year ago.

The number of male claimants on the Live Register fell by 1.3 per cent or 2,900 last month. The number of female claimants declined by 0.4 per cent or 600 over the same period.

In the year to October 2014, the number of male claimants decreased by 11.7 per cent to 217,772, while females claimants fell by 8,901 or 5.9 per cent to 140,858.

This compares to a 8.1 per cent drop for male claimants and a 1.2 per cent decline for female claimants for the year to October 2013.

Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton said the latest figures indicated that progress was being made to reduce the numbers signing on the Live Register.

“These are once again hugely encouraging figures, showing that the Pathways to Work strategy to reduce unemployment is making significant progress. In the first 9 months of this year, over 100,000 people have left the Live Register to take up employment. Unemployment is down from a crisis peak of 15.1 per cent to 11 per cent now, and, critically, the pace of the reduction is accelerating,” she said.

Alan McQuaid, an economist at Merrion said the unemployment rate remains the key indicator as far as the economy is concerned.

“We think that the level of unemployment will continue to fall in the final two months of 2014, dropping to 10.8 per cent by the close of the year,” he said.

“As regards the average rate for this year, we are looking for a figure of 11.4 per cent, down from 13.1 per cent in 2013. Assuming the economy continues to grow strongly in 2015, an average jobless rate of close to 10 per cent is envisaged for next year.”

Davy noted that there is a fear that long-term claimants, specifically ex-construction workers, could struggle to find new work – so that Ireland’s unemployment rate will stay above pre-crisis levels. However, its chief economist Cathal

Mac Coille said the decline in long-term claimants in the latest figures was encouraging.

Investec Ireland’s economist Philip O’Sullivan also noted the fall in the number of long-term unemployed but said the pace of reduction remained disappointingly slow.

“All in all, the October Live Register data show that the improving trend in the headline unemployment rate remains intact, helped by the recovery in employment, but the benefits of this have yet to be felt across all parts of the labour force,” he said.