THE SLOWING economy sent the Live Register to an eight-year high in February.
A total of 8,500 people joined the unemployment register last month, the largest monthly increase on record, bringing the seasonally adjusted number to 187,900, a level not seen since August 1999. The data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that 16,300 people have signed on in the first two months of 2008.
Analysts said the figures showed an increasing number of job losses in the construction sector, with about 7,000 of those signing on for the first time last month being men.
That confirms the position in the quarterly national household survey, published earlier this week, that employment in the construction sector started a downward trend in the latter part of 2007.
"It appears from the Live Register data that some 20,000 jobs have already been lost in the construction sector and it is inevitable that further jobs will follow," said Fergal O'Brien, an economist with employers' lobby group Ibec.
Having broken the 5 per cent level in January, the unemployment rate at the end of February was 5.2 per cent. Economists now expect that unemployment will exceed 5.5 per cent before the end of the year, with the more bearish expecting the figure to top 6 per cent. However, that would still lag the euro zone average, which stands at 7.1 per cent.
Unemployment, as measured by the Live Register, has jumped 18.9 per cent in the 12 months to February, with more than 30,000 people joining the register in that period. In the previous 12-month period, the numbers signing on had fallen by 100. "What is of most concern is that there appears to be no strategy at government level for dealing with the growth in unemployment," said Labour employment spokesman Willie Penrose.
Fine Gael enterprise spokesman Leo Varadkar said that "while most of the jobs being lost are in the construction sector, exchequer returns and the purchasing managers index of the services sector show the downturn has now spread throughout the economy".
So far, according to CSO figures, Dublin has escaped the brunt of the job losses. While the numbers signing on did increase in all regions, the percentage increase in the capital was 3.9 per cent - below the 4.7 per cent increase across the State as a whole.
