JUNE SAW AN extra 3,000 young people signing on the Live Register – bucking the trend of decreases across the board.
Figures released by the Central Statistic Office (CSO) today show that 2,932 more people under the age of 25 were signing on last month, bringing the figure to 61,448 – up from 58,516 in May.
However, there has been an annual decrease of 9,861 young people signing on – down from 71,309 in June 2013.
In the year to June 2014 the number of people aged 25 and over on the Live Register decreased by 26,683 (-7.3%), and the number of those aged under 25 decreased by 9,861 (-13.8%), partly due to emigration.
The National Youth Council has expressed concern at the monthly increase.
James Doorley, NYCI Deputy Director, noted: “While seasonal factors may be at play with regard to some of the increase, we should all be concerned at the high number of long-term unemployed young people. Recent figures from the Department of Social Protection indicate that over 24,000 young people have been on the live register for one year or more.”
Doorley added that the Council was concerned with “the slow pace of implementation of the Youth Guarantee” and called on the Government “to demonstrate its commitment to tackling youth unemployment”.
On a seasonally adjusted basis the number of people on the Live Register dropped by 4,400 in June to 386,200 – down from 36,200 the previous month.
This marks the 24th consecutive month of decreases and 36,544 less people signing on since June 2013, when the figure stood at 435,357.
In unadjusted terms terms there were 398,813 signing on.
The CSO noted that the standardised unemployment rate in June 2014 was 11.6%, down from 11.7% in May 2014.
Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton welcomed the overall decrease.
Month by month through the Pathways to Work strategy to reduce unemployment, we are continuing to help people back to work, as demonstrated again by today’s figures. These are welcome and very encouraging, but there remain far too many people on the Live Register and it’s clear we have much more to do to resolve this problem.
The number of male claimants decreased by 28,240 (-10.4%) to 242,697 in the year to June 2014, while female claimants decreased by 8,304 (-5.1%) to 156,116.
The number of long-term claimants on the Live Register in June 2014 was 188,858 – 47.4% of all claimants.
There were 76,561 casual and part-time workers on the Live Register in June 2014, which represents 19.2% of the total number of claimants. This compares with 20.3% one year earlier when there were 88,322 casual and part-time workers on the Live Register.
There were 32,875 new registrants on the Live Register last month.
Responding to the figures, Mark Fielding, CEO of the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association, said that a wage freeze was essential for job creation and economic recovery.
Employers, both private and public, are facing increased wage pressures in light of unreasonable Union demands. There is simply no room for manoeuvre on wages at present and no justification for such demands in a low-inflation economy.
“Jobs will be lost unless Government and employers hold the line on wages for at least the next twelve months. Ireland is already a high-wage economy with the social welfare trap making it difficult to fill necessary low-skilled jobs.”
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