Falling unemployment still among EU’s highest
by Bernard Harbor
Unemployment fell for the 25th consecutive month in July with the live register down to 382,000 or 11.5%, compared to 13% in July 2013. Nearly 19% of those on the live register – almost 76,000 people – are in part-time or casual work, which shows that taxpayers continue to subsidise employers who pay too little or offer their staff inadequate working hours.
Meanwhile, the latest issue of the Irish Congress of Trade Union’s Labour Market Monitor points out that Irish unemployment is still 50% higher than in EU countries that didn’t have to enter troika programmes. This is calculated by taking out the relatively high unemployment figures from Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland.
ICTU says it will take until 2020 for unemployment to get down to 5% if joblessness continues to fall at the current pace.
The CSO figures show that male long-term unemployment was down 8% in year to July 2014, while female long-term unemployment was up 3.2%.
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