Ronan Lyons | Personal Website
Ronan Lyons | Personal Website

unemployment

Three labour market trends Ireland can’t ignore

Ireland’s unemployment was recently revised down from 15% to 14%. Nonetheless, there are over 200,000 people in Ireland looking for work but who can’t find it. This post scratches beneath the surface and highlights three trends – by gender, by region and by sector – that those in charge of trying to create new jobs should bear in mind as the drive to bring meaningful recovery gathers pace. Read more

It’s not raining men – Ireland at risk of becoming the opposite of China

This post reviews the latest report from the CSO on unemployment. On the up side, most sectors in Ireland have not shed a lot of jobs – losses have been concentrated in four sectors in particular. On the down side, the extreme gender disparity in unemployment – with women significantly less likely to be unemployed at all ages than men – can only be bad for Ireland in the medium term, with household formation, and the long term, with our pensions crisis. Read more

Long-term unemployment must rise to top of the agenda in 2010

Of the various economic problems that face Ireland, unemployment has been the one to show least signs of turning the corner. This post reviews the latest Live Register data, and finds some crumbs of comfort in the marked slowdown in new job losses recently. It also analyses the gender and age breakdown of the Live Register in 2009, finding men under-25 have had it toughest, before offering some thoughts on growth sectors for the future. Read more

2009 in review and 2010 in preview

As the decade draws to a close, this post looks back at the toughest year for Ireland’s economy since independence. It examines a dozen headline economic indicators, across the labour market, national income and prices. 2009 is compared (and constrasted) with the 2000-2007 boom period, before predictions for 2010 are made, based on current evidence. The most startling figure is how our average income per head compares with the EU15, going from 13% richer in 2007 to 8% poorer next year. Read more

Is Ireland in a jobs recession or a jobs depression?

This post asks whether Ireland is in a recession or a depression, using the metric of jobs lost. It compares losses in Ireland with those in the US now and in the US during the Great Depression, and finds that – with almost one sixth of its private sector gone – Ireland is in indeed a jobs depression. Come the new year, it will be time for our jobs crisis to take centre stage as its cost to society is easily as large as NAMA or the public finances. Read more