THE DEPARTMENT OF Social Protection (DSP) is joining forces with builder’s body the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) to try to get the recovering building industry to take on construction workers who are long-term unemployed.

THE CSO’S MONTHLY live register figures were released today and show that unemployment has fallen still further from its six-year low last month to just 10% in March.

That represents its lowest level since January 2009.

Of the 348,676 people currently not working, approximately 57,000 (16.3%) come from the construction, woodwork, metal, and other similar industries, and of those roughly 38,000 have been out of work for more than a year.

CSO CSO

What the DSP has in mind is more of an awareness campaign than a recruitment drive however.

The campaign will see extensive information about the employment services provided by the DSP communicated to construction companies and contractors throughout Ireland.

Those services include:

• JobsPlus
• Jobs Ireland Recruitment Service
• JobBridge
• EmployAbility Service

Given Jobbridge’s relatively maligned status the PR spin for this one may be problematic.

The campaign will see the CIF communicating the government’s material on their various programmes to industry employers via “briefings, mailings, leaflets, videos, blogs, social media, a dedicated section being established on the CIF website and other channels,” according to the campaign blurb.

Tánaiste Joan Burton, pictured at the campaign launch this afternoon Sam Boal / Photocall Sam Boal / Photocall / Photocall

“What we want to say to employers is ‘if you want to take on staff, we can find the staff for you’,” said the Tánaiste at today’s campaign launch.

Construction companies get the finance they need to build, construction workers are re-employed, and they build the homes that families need.

Obviously if people go back on site for the first time in years they will need to upskill slightly their health and safety skills and that type of thing but all of that we can address in co-operation with the industry.

CIF head Tom Parlon Sam Boal / Photocall Ireland Sam Boal / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

Director general of the CIF Tom Parlon seemed relatively enthused also:

“We have a strong reach throughout the industry and we’ll be making that available to help generate greater awareness of the services provided by the DSP,” he said.

This will not only help those who are out of work, but it will also strongly benefit our sector, as well as the wider economy.

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