Taoiseach is accused of massaging dole figures
Jobless total hits 13-year record high
People waiting to sign on queue outside a social welfare office on Hanover Street in Cork yesterday
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THE numbers signing on the live register climbed to another grim record last month as the unemployment rate hit a 13-year high.
Last month, 413,500 people were signing on -- 197,700 more than for the same period last year -- a 92pc rise and two-and-a-half times more than two years ago.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen was yesterday accused of massaging the figures on unemployment after he claimed the rate of job losses was dropping.
Mr Cowen gave the lower seasonally adjusted rate of unemployment rather than the total number on the Live Register -- which is higher and still rising.
Increasing
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the numbers going on the dole were continuing to increase each month. He said the Taoiseach would usually quote the action figure and the real increase was 21,721, rather than 11,400.
Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore said the Taoiseach was quoting the more attractive figure. "It's a bit like saying: 'We're sinking but sinking more slowly'," he said.
But Mr Cowen said any increase in unemployment was regretted by the Government.
He also said he expected the unemployment rate to hit 15.5pc by the end of the year.
The Live Register breached the 400,000 mark for the first time ever in May, but that record was surpassed last month when 11,400 more people signed on.
Male workers continued to bear the brunt of the economic downturn with two times more men signing on than women.
And those aged under 25 were also badly hit -- their numbers on the register almost trebling in the past two years.
The latest Central Statistics Office Live Register figures reveal that the standardised unemployment rate reached 11.9pc last month -- the first time it has reached this level since June 1996.
Numbers of male workers on the register almost doubled in the year, rising to 276,300 last month, compared to 137,200 females.
The economic downturn also hit part-time and casual workers, with more than 68,000 seeking jobseekers' benefit and allowances.
More than 90,000 under-25s were on the register last month, almost three times as many as were signing on in June 2007, when there were only 32,400.
Employers' body ISME described the figures as "expected but still shocking" and said Government inaction through endless and fruitless talks with ICTU and IBEC was having a disastrous effect on the economy.
ISME chief executive Mark Fielding said the Government should acknowledge that partnership was dead and a national representative forum should be set up to instigate an economic recovery plan.
Trade union SIPTU warned that calling for more wage cuts in the light of rising unemployment would only drive the economy into deeper recession.
- Fergus Black and Fionnan Sheahan
