CSO: More than half of unemployed are long-term
Long-term unemployment now accounts for over half the number of people out of work, according to the Central Statistics Office.
The latest CSO Quarterly National Household Survey shows that by the end of the third quarter of the year there were 314,700 people officially unemployed, an increase of 15,700 on the previous year.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the rate of unemployment rose during the third quarter to 14.4% from 14.2%.
However the most concerning figures in today's report relate to long term unemployment, which jumped by 26.2% or 36,800 people between July and September.
Up to 56.3% of those out of work have been jobless for longer than 12 months, compared to 47% the previous year and 25.5% in Q3 of 2009.
The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME) has described the problem of long-term unemployent as a "national crisis".
The Association is calling on the Government to reassess its jobs plan, by putting particular emphasis on supporting enterprise and in turn job creation.
ISME claimed that policies to date have clearly failed to tackle the problem.
Employers' group IBEC also said the figures highlight the fragile state of the labour market.
“Rising long-term unemployment and falling labour market participation means that Government must urgently deliver on reform of the employment services to help people get back into to work and prevent the current high level of unemployment from becoming entrenched,” said IBEC senior economist Reetta Suonperä.
