O'Keeffe Says Redundancy Drop Signals Growth

The Minister for Enterprise, has defended the Government's criticised job policies by saying the slowing rate of redundancies shows that economic recovery is under way.

Minister Batt O’Keeffe was speaking in response to the damaging Live Register figures, published yesterday, which revealed a severe rise in benefit claimants of almost 14,000 since June.

According to Minister O'Keeffe, the number of redundancies lodged to the Department last month was lower than in any month last year bar December and, with the exception of May, was the lowest so far received this year.

"Behind every job loss statistic is a human story and we must continue to tackle unemployment with a range of policy measures that effect economic recovery. The rise in the live register figures, which is common in the summer and due to seasonal factors, will be reversed in the autumn.

"The figures count over 64,000 part-time workers and I am working with the Minister for Social Protection on plans to put these people back on a five-day week," said Minister O’Keeffe.

The minister added that the number of redundancy claims lodged for the first seven months of the year amounted to 39,105 - a 20% drop on the level filed for the same period last year.

Hoowever, Fine Gael's spokesman for Jobs, Richard Bruton today rejected the claims, saying the latest Live Register figures represented the human cost of failed Government policies and in the absence of a jobs strategy current unemployment trends are set to continue.

“The surge in the number of people becoming unemployed in July is extremely worrying. The first wave of unemployment hit construction and manufacturing where 180,000 jobs were wiped out, mainly for men.

"Now we see a second phase with huge job losses hitting white collar workers, mainly women, as the recession takes hold. In July alone, almost 7,000 women lost jobs in the professional, clerical and secretarial occupations contributing to a staggering overall figure of 452,500 signing on in Ireland."

Mr Bruton said over 80% of the jobs that have been lost in the past two years have been among those aged under 30, and that unemployment rates among people under 25 are over 33%.

“These figures point to a stark conclusion: that the Government’s strategy will at best produce jobless growth. If a government wants to make jobs a priority, it has to take actions that put jobs first."

(DW)