Unemployment is on the increase for the first time since 1996, according to the latest Quarterly National Household Survey published today.
The survey shows that there were 79,500 people unemployed in the June-August quarter of 2001, bringing the unemployment rate to 4.3 per cent in the third quarter of 2001.
This was the first annual increase in the numbers unemployed since April 1996 and compares sharply with the annual decline of 9,500 recorded in the second quarter of 2001.
Meanwhile the Irish economy slowed dramatically in the second quarter of 2001 according to figures released today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Gross National Product (GNP) which includes capital flows from Irish operations overseas and repatriated profits from multi nationals out of the country, rose by only 1.6 per cent on the same quarter of 2000. This was very much lower than the 11 per cent annual growth recorded in the first quarter of the year.
However the CSO noted that the level of GNP was particularly high in the second quarter of 2000, when the growth in GNP exceeded that of GDP. GNP is affected by the timing of income flows with the rest of the world.
Chief economist at Bloxham Stockbrokers Mr Alan McQuaid said there was no doubt the Irish economy was slowing but he emphasised there was still plenty of activity going on and rejected speculation that a recession was looming.
"In simple terms, Ireland is in a cyclical downturn, no more, no less," he said, adding the economy would recover when the United States picked up - probably around the middle of 2002.
He forecast average GNP growth for the year of around five percent, with GDP growth at between six and seven percent.
"But we will see a further decline over the next six months, and looking at next year, you'd be hard pressed to see growth above four per cent," he said.
Chief economist at Investec, Mr Dominick Sutton, said accurate analysis was impossible without seasonally adjusted figures, which were unavailable at present as the CSO had not been compiling quarterly data long enough.
Additonal reporting by Reuters