20% jobless rate for midwest predicted

THE RATE of unemployment in the midwest will reach 20 per cent by this time next year. The bleak prediction is made by businessman Denis Brosnan, who has been charged with delivering a blueprint for the region’s economic recovery.

In an unpublished letter to Clare Fine Gael TD Joe Carey, Mr Brosnan said: “From all I have heard, it would be my personal prediction that there will be one in every five unemployed in the region by this time next year”.

The Midwest Taskforce chairman and former chief executive of the Kerry Group, Mr Brosnan made his gloomy prediction after concluding phase one of the taskforce’s work which involved meeting all agencies associated with employment, industries affected by the Dell jobs loss, as well as leading economists.

“This is enabling us to form a view as to what unemployment could be at in the region in the event of no new initiatives being taken,” Mr Brosnan said.

The taskforce was established in the wake of Dell’s announcement of 1,900 job losses at its Limerick manufacturing facility in January.

Mr Brosnan said: “There is no good news here, and the 15,000 unemployed, on which I was quoted, is probably an optimistic forecast.”

The taskforce is to publish its interim report next month with a series of recommendations to Government.

The latest figures show that the unemployment rate in the midwest has jumped 87.5 per cent – also the national average – in the past 12 months, from 17,538 to 32,899. This equates to 42 people losing their jobs in the region for every day over the past year.

The current national unemployment rate is 11 per cent. The statistics show that the unemployment rate in north Tipperary has climbed by 94 per cent; in Limerick by 88 per cent and in Clare by 82 per cent since March 2008.