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Surge in local youth unemployment figures

Thursday, 10 July 2008

THE Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Barry Andrews, has said young Irish men are “almost exclusively” suffering from growing unemployment.
His comments came after recent figures showed there were up to 50 per cent more young people in South Dublin on the live register compared to last year.
The most recent statistics show that the number of those aged under 25 claiming unemployment benefits in several parts of South Dublin have increased massively on last year.
There was a huge increase of 47.2 per cent in the yearly figure reported in the number of people under the age of 25 on the live register in the Rathfarnham local office.
The numbers are up from 231 last year to 340 this year.
The corresponding figure for the same age group in the Dún Laoghaire local office is 50.2 per cent, up from 265 last year to 398 this year.
Only the Balbriggan local office has reported a higher percentage increase in the Greater Dublin area.
Young Fine Gael (YFG) activists are now calling on the Government to address the problem.
Last week YFG Spokesperson John Kennedy called on Fianna Fáil to make a statement about what he described as the “emerging crisis”.
"The Government claims rising unemployment is an international phenomenon, but job losses are actually falling across most of Europe,” he said.
“Ireland is only one of two EU countries where unemployment has risen in the last year.
“Recent job losses announced by Dell in Cherrywood show that Ireland's declining competitiveness is hitting the Dublin South and Dún Laoghaire areas hard.
The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Barry Andrews, spoke to Southside People about the new figures in South Dublin and his own constituency of Dún Laoghaire where the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin, is also a sitting TD.
“Just like all other parts of the country South Dublin has experienced job losses,” he said.
“Young men, almost exclusively, have witnessed the growth in unemployment.
“The number of young people who enter the labour force in times of an economic downturn tends to decrease as people are more inclined to remain in education and training rather than trying to gain employment.
“We appear to be experiencing such a trend at present with a falling of participation rates for under 25s right across the country.”
Young Fine Gael says the Government needs to completely overhaul FÁS, the State training agency, which they claim produces “limited results”.
They also called for a new jobs creation strategy for unemployed young people and the introduction new methods to allow the newly unemployed to acquire new skills.
In addition, the minister said the last Labour Force Survey figures reported that unemployment was recorded at 5.3 per cent and stated that compared to the rates of 17-18 per cent recorded in the 1980s, the numbers are “relatively low”.
“That is not to diminish the anguish caused to those who have recently lost their jobs,” he added.

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