1,500 more join dole queues

Another 1,500 people joined the dole queues last month, pushing the numbers signing on closer to the half million mark.

Another 1,500 people joined the dole queues last month, pushing the numbers signing on closer to the half million mark.

Latest official figures show 14.3% of the workforce jobless, with 470,284 people claiming unemployment benefits in July. The average unemployment rate last year was 13.6%.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) revealed more than four times as many women as men joined the live register during last month.

During the past year there was a 3.7% increase in the number of women claiming benefits and a slight drop in the number of men.

However men remain more likely to be out of work than women.

The number of long-term claimants has increased by 45,508 to 190,062 over the past year.

This means more than 40% of those on the dole have been so for more than a year - compared with just over 30% the same time last year.

Responding to the figures, the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME) said that the Government should acknowledge that their jobs initiative is not working.

The expected but still shocking Live Register and Redundancy figures show quite clearly that the Government’s action is not having the desired effect on the jobs situation," said ISME Chief Executive Mark Fielding.

Mr Fielding said a priority was to tackle the negative factors that are impacting on the business sector, particularly excessive costs, late payments and lack of access to finance, which are directly leading to significant job losses.

Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins meanwhile said the fresh rise in unemployment is further proof that austerity is not working.

"It was Einstein who defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results each time," Deputy Higgins said.

"This approach sums up the government perfectly.

"The situation demands an active movement of opposition to austerity by ordinary people in the autumn and radical alternative for job creation based on emergency public works and an expansion of state enterprise and credit for small and medium enterprises."

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