Live register numbers falling despite Brexit fears - Varadkar

Brexit poses an enormous risk to our economy, Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar said, but it also holds potential for opportunity.

“We have to plan for that as best we can, to minimise the damage from Brexit and maximise the opportunities.

"So far we aren't seeing any significant evidence of a slow down in the jobs market," he told RTE's Morning Ireland.

“Number on the live register are falling as fast every week this year as it did this time last year, so there is no evidence of a slow down in terms of unemployment falling off and we were concerned about that in the aftermath of the Referendum that the uncertainty alone might cause employers not to take people on.

“We haven’t seen that happen yet.”

The Minister was speaking following the release of figures that show a decrease in the numbers on the live register.

“What we know from the Quarterly National Household survey yesterday is that we have employment growth in the vast majority of sectors in the economy - in retail, industry, agriculture, transport, construction.

“There are increases in construction, big increases in food production, accommodation which is essentially the tourism sector, health, education.

“What this would indicate is that people are taking up employment in most, if not all sectors in the economy.

“We are seeing really good evidence of jobs growth and unemployment falling across the country, the biggest falls of unemployment are in the mid west, south west and midlands which is further indication that the economic recovery is spreading to all parts of the country.”

The Minister said that the data from Job Plus is very positive, “not everyone stays in employment for two years – but there is good evidence that people continue in employment.”

He added that the replacement for Job Bridge will be in place in the latter part of 2017.

Under the replacement scheme a person will be paid at least the minimum wage for the hours they work and employers will make a contribution.

Public consultation is under way involving employers, trade unions and other groups, he said.

“People will have the dignity of knowing they will be paid for their labour, and we will require employers to make a contribution.

“We want to wind down Job Bridge and we want this programme to be a totally new programme. What’s more important is what we can do to help people into work, making work pay, to reduce the cost of child care.

“There is an emerging skill shortage in some parts of the economy, even in the construction sector where there has been a big employment in the last year, people are starting to find that they don’t have the skilled tradesmen they used to have. That’s happening in other sectors too.

“There has been an increase in the Budget for Third Level - a lot is happening around apprenticeships too, but part of what we have to do is align the skills of people who are unemployed with the jobs available. We do need migration too where there are skills gaps.”