The number of people claiming unemployment benefit fell sharply in September, stemming a short period of climbing jobless figures. Una McCaffrey reports.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) said yesterday that the seasonally-adjusted live register had declined by 2,700 between August and September.
The new total of 156,400 brought the number of jobless people back to levels seen in June, effectively cancelling out two months of increases in the live register.
The figures offer the latest in a series of indications that the employment market has been particularly buoyant this year.
Alan McQuaid, chief economist with Bloxham Stockbrokers, expects the average rise in employment in 2005 to well exceed the 2004 increase of 54,400.
"We are now looking for an overall rise of 75,000, but that will be mainly concentrated within the construction and services sectors," Mr McQuaid said.
Economists at Davy suggested yesterday that the live register could now be nearing its "natural floor".
Based on the latest figures, the estimated seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate fell from 4.5 per cent to 4.4 per cent in September.
In the year to September, the live register total fell by 7,131, or 4.4 per cent, on an unadjusted basis. This compares with an unadjusted decrease of 6,423, or 3.7 per cent in the year to August.
A breakdown of the monthly figures showed the monthly seasonally-adjusted decrease of 2,700 was comprised of 500 males and 2,200 females.
Unadjusted monthly figures showed that the live register declined in all regions in September, with the largest percentage decrease coming in the west. In September, the estimated number of casual and part-time workers on the live register was 7,466 males and 11,934 females.
Over the first nine months of the year, the average total on the live register was 158,900, compared to 169,600 in the same months of 2004.
Bloxham is expecting the average for this year as a whole to come in at 156,600, down from the 166,000 recorded last year.
In an upbeat economic commentary published yesterday, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) pointed to the strong employment picture as the basis for its growth forecasts for this year. The institute expects the economy to grow by 5.7 per cent.
