Biggest ever rise in unemployment
On an unadjusted basis, applications increased by 120,987 in 2008, the biggest increase since records began in 1967
Unemployment rose in December to the highest level in more than 15 years as a construction slump continued and the country slipped further into recession.
Benefit applications, adjusted for seasonal swings, increased to 293,500, the most since December 1993, from 277,200 in November, the Cork-based Central Statistics Office said today. The unemployment rate was 8.3 percent and state employment agency FAS predicts it will reach at least 12 percent this year, a level not seen since 1996.
Unemployment in Ireland is rising at a record pace as companies including Dell Inc. and Waterford Wedgewood Plc cut jobs. A slump that began with the bursting of a decade-long property boom is being amplified by cooling export and consumer demand. The economy may contract as much as 4 percent this year, the most in at least 40 years, the government has forecast.
“Should the current rate of acceleration persist then it is inevitable that the unemployment rate will reach at least 12 percent over the course of the year,” said Brian McCormick, economist at FAS. Unemployment rates will depend on the “impact of a weak sterling and the credit crunch on the retail sector as well as the migration response.”
On an unadjusted basis, applications increased by 120,987 in 2008, the biggest increase since records began in 1967.
Separate government figures show that Irish companies cut almost twice the number of jobs in December than a year earlier. Dell, the world’s second-biggest personal-computer maker, yesterday announced plans to axe 1,900 jobs at a plant in the Irish city of Limerick. As many as 2,700 Irish and British jobs at Waterford Wedgewood may be at risk unless a buyer is found for Dublin-based crystal maker, which went into receivership on Jan. 5 after losing money for five years. (Bloomberg)
- Colm Heatley
