Labour market stable despite jobless increase

The number of people claiming unemployment benefits increased in August, as the seasonally adjusted Live Register increased by 600 to 158,200.

The rise in the number of jobless is a return to recent trends, following a decrease of 2,400 in July, according to figures published yesterday by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The standardised monthly unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.4 per cent for the ninth month in a row, remaining below the euro- zone average of 7.8 per cent.

Over the previous 12 months, there was an unadjusted increase of 221, compared to an unadjusted increase of 437 in the year to July 2006.

The monthly increase in the number of people claiming their entitlement to unemployment assistance or benefit was made up of an increase of 100 men and 500 women.

In August, the estimated number of casual and part-time workers on the Live Register was 7,517 males and 11,835 females.

When not seasonally adjusted, there was a monthly increase of 668 on the register, with the largest percentage increase occurring in the mid-east. The only region that showed a decrease was the south-west.

Among the counties, the largest percentage increases were in Meath and in Roscommon.

Davy Stockbrokers economist Rossa White said the Irish labour market remained remarkably stable, with the number of unemployment benefit claimants rising only marginally.

"No news is good news. Since the number of people claiming benefit reached a cyclical low early in 2005, the labour market has remained firm," said Mr White, who added that the claimant total had been in a tight range of 157,000-160,000 all year.

"Considering the surge in the labour force since the start of 2005, it is encouraging that unemployment claimants have not increased significantly. It suggests that those joining the labour force are finding work readily."

There were 1,846 redundancies in August, according to figures from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The number of redundancies received under the redundancy scheme increased only marginally, by 0.2 per cent, on the number received in August 2005.

A detailed analysis of the 2,071 redundancies received in July show that the highest number of job losses occurred in the manufacturing sector.

A total of 15,750 jobs have been lost so far this year, with the pace of redundancies running ahead of last year's total of 15,530 for the first eight months.