Further fall in unemployment

UNEMPLOYMENT fell again last month, resuming the downward trend which had been broken by a rise in March. Figures published yesterday show a drop of 4,600 in last month's seasonally adjusted total.

The live register total, at 256,00p, was 25,800 below what it was in April of last year, a fall which is yielding major benefits to the exchequer. In March the total had increased by 1,100, the first rise since the middle of 1996.

The drop of 4,600 last month will involve a saving to the exchequer of between £16 million and £18.5 million in a full year. The saving in a full year from the fall since April 1996 is between £90 million and £100 million.

The Department of Social Welfare estimates that £3.5 million to £4 million is saved for every 1,000 drop in the unemployment figure.

The Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, said an analysis of the March figures had found that 82 per cent of those who left the live register that month were under 45 years of age, while 5 per cent had been on the register for over three years.

"It is clear we have to redouble our efforts to assist the long term unemployed access the jobs currently available," he said.

He praised his department's job facilitators and 600 inspectors for helping people find work and preventing people from abusing the system. These were major factors contributing to the fall in the numbers on the register, he said.

The Fianna Fail spokeswoman on enterprise and employment, Ms Mary O'Rourke, said the savings from the drop in the live register should be used to tackle long term unemployment. Long term unemployment went down by only 300 last year, and half of all unemployment is of more than one year's duration, Ms O'Rourke said.

"Unless this is tackled now, it will become increasingly difficult in the coming years to reduce the number of long term unemployed."

The fall in the numbers unemployed was welcomed by the former spokeswoman for the Department of Social Welfare, Ms Mairead Foley, who is to be a candidate for the Progressive Democrats in the next election.

The Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed (INOU), in a statement, also welcomed the "significant fall" but criticised the government over not publishing statistics on the rate of long term unemployment.