JOB LOSSES:MORE THAN 1,000 job losses were announced every week during January in what was the bleakest month to date for unemployment since the economic downturn began.
Official figures for January to be published within the next fortnight are expected to show the number of unemployed has exceeded the 300,000 mark, the highest figure in a decade.
While more than 4,600 job losses were announced publicly in January before yesterday’s losses in Waterford, many more people are thought to have become unemployed as a result of smaller and unpublicised job losses or business closures.
Social welfare officials, for example, estimate about 20,000 new claimants will have applied to join the Live Register when official figures are compiled.
Most of the major job losses were a direct result of either a slump in sales or of decisions by employers to relocate their manufacturing to cheaper locations.
The biggest announcement in January was at Dell, where management announced 1,900 people would go at its Limerick plants over a 12-month period after deciding to move its manufacturing base to Poland. It said cheaper manufacturing costs in eastern Europe would allow it to maintain competitiveness and keep the cost of its products down.
Other major losses were announced at Superquinn, which plans to shed 400 posts across its workforce, after a significant slump in sales. This includes the closure of its Dundalk supermarket which employed almost 70 people.
Ulster Bank Group also announced plans to cut 400 jobs as part of a merger with former building society First Active. This will see the closure of most, but not all, First Active outlets.
Latest official figures for December 2008 showed unemployment reach a 10-year high with 290,000 unemployment benefit claimants.
The Central Statistics Office said these figures brought the estimated unemployment rate up to 8.3 per cent, after a grim year for the jobs market in which 121,000 people joined dole queues.
This year, Government officials expect a further 120,000 people will lose their jobs, bringing the numbers on the Live Register to some 400,000, or an unemployment rate of about 10 per cent.
The sharp growth in unemployment is significantly higher than that which was forecast by the Government when it drew up its budget last October. At the time it forecast average unemployment figures for 2009 in the region of 290,000.
Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin estimates that at least €400 million extra will be needed to meet the rising cost of unemployment benefit.
This would bring total spending on social welfare to more than €20 billion.
As well as sharp increases in the numbers on unemployment benefit, the proportion of people in receipt of rental or mortgage assistance welfare payments is also set to rise sharply.
Last year the Department of Social Welfare received a supplementary estimate of €380 million.
