The latest monthly fall of 4,000 in the unemployment figures confirms the robust state of the economy and its capacity to generate employment. For the eighth consecutive month, the number of people drawing unemployment assistance declined last November. According to the recent Labour Force Survey, a total of 41,000 net new jobs was created in the year to last April. Economic growth is expected to continue at about 7 per cent of GDP and inflation will be less than 2 per cent. The statistics have been so consistently positive that commentators have become almost blase about the strength and capabilities of the Celtic Tiger; but there has been an insufficiently sharp focus on the continuing high levels of unemployment.
An unemployment rate of less than 10 per cent in this State is certainly something to celebrate, particularly when it is slightly lower than the European Union average, and because it represents a halving of our overall unemployment percentage over a period of about ten years. But there is no room for complacency; the current out-of-work figure of 239,960 - although the best for 20 years - still represents a major political, economic and social failure which is acting as a brake on the economy and represents a threat to future social stability. By contrast, the British unemployment rate stands at about 7 per cent.
Specific actions by the Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrats Government in the Budget to reduce the levels of unemployment were disappointing. Measures adopted by the new Coalition were largely confined to special schemes, rather than a head-on approach of tackling poverty traps and the "tax wedge" which inhibit the long-term unemployed from entering the workforce. There is a danger, at a time of economic boom and bloom, that the needs of the most disadvantaged in society may be neglected. A greater emphasis on special education initiatives and training schemes is urgently required if all citizens - particularly the unemployed - are to be provided with opportunities to fulfil their potential. The fall in the numbers of unemployed would, of itself, free up resources which could be urgently re-directed towards such initiatives. For there is not much public appeal to in policies which bring the national finances into order while leaving one in 10 of the workforce on the dole.
That said, a drop of 18,000 in the number of people signing on the Live Register within a three-month period is the kind of progress that seemed unattainable even five years ago. Particular satisfaction can be taken from the reduction in the number of young people drawing the dole. In the past year, that figure has been reduced by 11,000 and is now at its lowest level for 15 years, at a total of 52,000. The unemployment situation is certainly less worrying than it has been, but it would be dangerously naive for the Government to believe that economic growth, of itself, will solve the residual problem. Despite the signs of progress, the unemployment problem must continue to receive priority across all sectors of Government.