Unemployment hits 10-year high
Irish unemployment rose in August to the highest in a decade as the deepening housing slump prompted builders to cut jobs.
Benefit applications, adjusted for seasonal swings, increased to 235,100, the highest since March 1998, from 226,000 in July, the Cork-based Central Statistics Office said today. The claimant count has increased by 73,200 in the last 12 months.
Ireland's construction sector is contracting at a record pace, threatening to drag the economy into its first recession in a quarter century. Manufacturing and services are also shrinking, adding to pressure on the labor market.
''Ireland has not witnessed such a rapid deterioration in the labor market since 1975,'' Alan McQuaid, an economist at Bloxham Stockbrokers in Dublin, said before the report. '' It is clear that a wide range of sectors in the economy are now being affected by the international credit crunch and the domestic housing slowdown.''
The unemployment rate rose to 6.1 percent in August from 5.8 percent, according to the report. That's the highest since December 1998.
Irish monthly jobless figures include part-time and seasonal workers who claim unemployment benefits. Based on the Quarterly National Household Survey, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.1 percent in the second quarter. That report also showed that payrolls growth slowed to 0.3 percent from 2.6 percent in the previous quarter.
