THE NUMBERS at work in the economy continued to fall in the second quarter, according to figures released yesterday by the Central Statisitics Office.
However, the seasonally adjusted 3,200 fall in the number of those working compared to three months earlier was the smallest such decline since employment began shrinking more than three years ago.
According to the Quarterly National Household Survey, on adjusted basis, a total of 304,500 people in the workforce, about one in seven, are now unemployed, up 10,900 on the same period last year. The rate of joblessness rose in the second quarter to 14.2 per cent of the workforce. The new figures also revise the August unemployment rate to 14.5 per cent (from 14.4 per cent).
The number of people classified as long-term unemployed (out of work for more than a year) now accounts for more than half of all unemployment – 53.9 per cent compared to 43.3 per cent.
Young people are far more likely to be unemployed than older age groups. The rate of joblessness among 15-19-year-olds in the second quarter stoood at 40.1 per cent. This rate falls progressively with age. In the oldest age group for which figures are published – 60-65-year-olds – unemployment was 8.7 per cent.
Although the unemployment rate has been rising since February, it is still below the peak of 14.8 per cent last November.
In the second quarter of the year 1,815,900 people were at work. This is down by 325,000 from the peak in the end of 2007.
The most recent quarter-on-quarter fall in the numbers at work, of 0.2 per cent, is much lower than the largest declines recorded in early 2009 when job shedding was at its most extreme.
The jobs picture by sector was mixed, with some sectors adding significant numbers and others cutting. The biggest net gain was in the “human health and social work category”, which jumped by more than 5,000.
Both the hospitality and the “information and communications” sectors added jobs, with the former registering a quarter-on-quarter increase of 4,600 net new jobs and the latter, 2,600. The number of private administrative jobs in the economy was up 2,700 on the quarter.
Hiring in retail and wholesale – the economy’s biggest employer – was up by 2,000 to 265,000.
By far the largest contraction was in public administration. More than 7,000 fewer people were at work in the sector in the second quarter compared to the first three months.
Despite a strong manufacturing sector, numbers employed in the industry continued a well-established downward trend in the second quarter, with a net decline of more than 3,000 jobs, to a total of 232,000.
As has been the case since the property bubble burst, the numbers working in construction continued to fall in the second quarter, dropping by more than 3,000, to fall below 106,000. Well over a quarter of million people were employed in the building industry at the height of the boom.
The QNHS figure differs from the monthly Live Register count of those in receipt of unemployment welfare benefits, which stands at 450,000. Many of those entitled to such benefits work a small number of hours which excludes them from being formally classified as unemployed.
A feature of the figures is the trend to part-time working. Full-time employment fell by 53,000 over the year, partially offset by an increase in the number of part-time workers where the numbers increased by 15,200. Part-time employment now accounts for 23.4 per cent of total employment.
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