Unemployment soars to 5.1% as 500 more jobs are lost

ECONOMIC GLOOM intensified yesterday as new figures showed that unemployment has soared to its highest rate since 1999, and a total of 500 jobs were lost in Co Cork and Co Offaly.

Accelerating job losses in the construction sector and cuts in manufacturing jobs led to a dramatic drop of 26,600 in the number of people employed in the March-May period compared to the previous three months, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said. This pushed up the official unemployment rate for the second quarter to 5.1 per cent and prompted calls for the Government to introduce retraining schemes for workers who are made redundant.

The deteriorating state of the jobs market struck Tullamore, Co Offaly, yesterday as the US medical devices company Boston Scientific told workers that it was to close its plant, with the loss of 240 jobs. There was further bad news as the High Court wound up the insolvent Carrigtwohill-based firm Howley Civil Engineering, with the loss of all 250 jobs.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen, in whose constituency Boston Scientific was based, said the Government and the jobs agencies IDA and Enterprise Ireland were already working to attract new jobs to Tullamore. However, the Opposition attacked the Government's handling of the downturn, with Labour Party enterprise spokesman Willie Penrose saying the industrial development agencies must be asked to "up their game" in their attempt to create new jobs.

Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton said the Government was "doing nothing to restore confidence" or help young, well-qualified people who have lost their jobs in the construction and manufacturing sectors to retrain in areas like logistics and technical engineering where there was still growing demand.

Siptu also called on the Government to make more re-skilling opportunities available. The trade union's research officer Marie Sherlock said this should include removing fees on third-level courses for students who have not previously attended college.

The number of full-time jobs available is declining on an annual basis, with 4,300 fewer people employed full-time in April 2008 than there were a year ago, according to the CSO's Quarterly National Household Survey. Economists called the 9.5 per cent plummet in construction jobs over the year "alarming".

The number of immigrants coming into the State in the year to April fell sharply by 26,000 to 83,800, according to population statistics published by the CSO. This suggests migrant workers are reacting to the worsening labour market here and the improving jobs situation in central Europe.

Net migration declined steeply to 38,500, down from 67,300 in the previous year. But the number of births reached its highest level since 1980, helping the population to grow by 83,100 to an estimated 4.42 million.