Number out of work rises 69% during last quarter of 2008

The number of people unemployed at the end of the fourth-quarter last year rose by almost 70 per cent to bring the overall number out of work to 170,600, and the official unemployment rate to 7.7 per cent.

The Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today also showed an annual decline of 4.1 per cent to 2,052,000 in the number of people employed. This is the largest decrease in employment since records began in 1975.

This increase led to a fall in the percentage of working age people - between 15 and 64 - employed to 65.8 per cent, a level last recorded in early 2004.

The figures also suggest the private sector is bearing the brunt of the job losses. In the year to November 97,400 private sector employees lost their jobs while employment in public-service dominated areas of health, education and public administration and defence rose by around 10,000.

Rossa White, senior economist with Davy, said industries closest to the collapsing construction sector were worst hit by job losses but added there was “no pain-sharing evident” when it came to job losses.

Austin Hughes, chief economist with KBC Bank Ireland, said the pace of job losses in the final quarter of 2008 here was faster than most other countries.

“This suggests a rapid response by Irish companies to the deterioration in global and domestic conditions in the autumn,” Mr Hughes said.

What started as a slowdown in the construction sector has now spread to other sectors of the economy, he added.

Brian Devine, economist with NCB Stockbrokers said on the basis of the new data he was likely to revise upwards his forecast that unemployment would peak at 15 per cent next year.

This was because the forecast assumed significant emigration which was now far less likely due to the global economic slump.

“It had been hypothesised that the large number of accession immigrants that came to Ireland in the period 2004 to 2008 would return home, but Eastern European countries are now in dire straits,” Mr Devine said.

There were an estimated 476,100 non-Irish nationals aged over 15 living in the State between September and November 2008, of which 316,000 were in employment.

Unemployment among non-Irish nationals rose to 9.5 per cent in the fourth quarter, up from 5.6 per cent over the same period in 2007.

Construction sector jobs fell by 16.5 per cent or approximately 34,000 in the year to November while the number of people employed in hotels and restaurants fell almost 8 per cent. The number of people working in the retail and wholesale sectors was 5.8 per cent lower.

The QNHS records the unemployment rate while the live register measures those claiming jobseekers’ benefits and includes some part-time workers. Live register data for January show 327,861 people signing on for benefits.

The latest available figures – which are from the third quarter 2008 – show Ireland’s unemployment rate of 7 per cent was higher than the EU27 average of 6.8 per cent.

Damien English, Fine Gael’s labour affairs spokesman, called on the Government to adopt an action plan to keep people in work, saying the latest data shows the true scale of the unemployment crisis.

“The worst falls happened in the last quarter of 2008. This is when the Government should finally have acknowledged the scale of the problem facing Ireland and drawn up a national employment plan.”

Willie Penrose, Labour Party enterprise spokesman said the jobs reflect the massive haemorrhage of jobs over recent months. “We now have the highest Live Register figures ever recorded and the largest ever annual decrease in employment ever seen since the Household Survey started in 1975,” said Mr Penrose.