UNEMPLOYMENT REACHED a new 16-year high in July and white-collar workers are swelling the ranks of the jobless at an accelerating pace, according to figures out yesterday.
Raw data recorded an increase of 13,900 claiming benefits in July alone. When adjusted for seasonal factors, the number was smaller, at 8,500, although it was the largest such monthly increase in a year and continues the sharp upward trend in evidence since April.
Previously unpublished numbers on the occupational background of claimants show that the new wave of unemployment is a result of higher-skilled workers signing on.
In the three months to July, the rise in professionals claiming benefits grew by 29 per cent, by 17 per cent for clerical and secretarial workers and by more than 12 per cent for those classified as “associated professionals and technical”.
The separate harmonised rate of unemployment stood at 13.7 per cent of the labour force. This is the highest rate recorded since 1994 and is among the highest in the developed world.
Moreover, and unlike most peer countries, the rate continues to rise. The increase in July was the third consecutive monthly rise. It was also the largest since November.
While joblessness and claimant numbers held steady in the final months of last year and the first month of 2010, labour market conditions have deteriorated since then.
Yet another set of figures, on redundancies registered with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, were also released yesterday. They show that lay-offs in July, at more than 5,000, were almost unchanged on May and June.
The monthly count of those claiming jobless benefit shows that women accounted for two-thirds of the increase in the total so far this year. Of the people to have joined the ranks of welfare recipients since the beginning of the year, all were Irish. Foreign national claimants in July were down 2,000 on January.
Geographically, all eight regions of the State recorded increases in claimants in July compared both with a month earlier and July 2009.
Claimants are also spending longer on benefits. This is likely to reflect limited new job opportunities. In July more than 30 per cent of those claiming benefits had been doing so for more than a year. The proportion of long-term recipients has been rising inexorably since these figures were first compiled just nine months ago. In October 2009, just over two in 10 claimants were claiming benefits for more than a year.
Opposition parties have condemned the Government for failing to stem the rising tide of unemployment.
Fine Gael enterprise spokesman Richard Bruton said that the surge in the number of people becoming unemployed in July was extremely worrying. This represented the second phase of rising joblessness as the recession takes hold, he said. “The first wave of unemployment was mainly for men in construction and manufacturing,” he added.
His Labour Party counterpart, Willie Penrose, said that the rising numbers of people seeking employment assistance was a “clear indication” that solving the jobs crisis had dropped to the bottom of the Government’s agenda.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O’Keeffe was upbeat, saying that the economic recovery was under way and that the rise in the Live Register figures “will be reversed in the autumn”. He said that “behind every job loss statistic is a human story and we must continue to tackle unemployment with a range of policy measures that effect economic recovery”.