The number of people signing on fell to a 19-year low at the end of December, indicating that job losses in the high-tech sector and elsewhere in the economy have yet to feed through to official figures.
Most of the high-profile job losses announced in December, including the 700 redundancies at Motorola in Swords, Co Dublin, will not have affected employment statistics yet. Motorola is not due to close its plant until the start of next month.
The latest figures show that 141,586 people were on the live register at the end of December. The seasonally adjusted figure of 138,700 was the lowest for almost 20 years. "The figures show a drop of nearly 35,000 in the past 12 months alone. Thirty-five thousand extra people back at work says more than any fine words about this Government's successful assault on unemployment," said the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Ahern, in a statement.
The Central Statistics Office said yesterday that the live register was not designed to measure unemployment. It includes part-time workers who work three days a week or less, as well as seasonal and casual workers entitled to unemployment assistance or benefit. The number of unemployed as measured by the most recent Labour Force Survey in June-August is 77,700, according to the CSO.
A breakdown of the live register figures provided by Mr Ahern's Department show the number who had no work at all was 104,300. The number of casual or part-time workers signing on was 17,900, while the balance of 19,400 was on the register but not getting a payment for various reasons.
The Labour Party focused on the raw figure for December, which was 4,624 higher than in November. "While an increase in the numbers signing on is usually expected in December, the size of this increase is a cause of concern," said Mr Pat Rabbitte, the party spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment.
"Our economic success and high rates of employment have been hard won. These gains have to be protected. The complacency and smugness that currently exists within Government is adding to the current instability felt by many workers. It is time the Government woke up to realities," he said.
The standardised unemployment rate in December was 3.6 per cent, according to the CSO. The full year average for 2000 was 4.1 per cent compared to 4.3 in April 2000 based on the Quarterly National Household Survey, said the organisation.
The number of men signing on fell by 19,012 during the year and the number of women was down by 15,941.
The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed expressed concern at what it said were two worrying trends in the figures. It said the number of people under 25 who left the live register in 2000 was half the number of the previous year while - at the other end of the age spectrum - there had been a marked increase in the number of those on pre-retirement payments.
