Reduction on Live Register in Mayo

Reduction on Live Register in Mayo


Rowan Gallagher

MAYO seems to have bucked the trend this month with a small reduction in the amount of people on the Live Register.
167 fewer people are on the Live Register this month when compared to the July figure, which was at a 16-year high.
Every Social Welfare Office in the county saw a decrease on the figures released last month when compared to July.
Nationally there are over 455,000 people on the seasonally adjusted Live Register. The figures show that the construction sector seems to have bottomed out but that middle class jobs are at risk now with a rise in managerial and administrative jobs being lost.
The number of professionals signing on rose more sharply than any other group of workers to 31,322 last month -- a 27pc hike since February.
“69 per cent of the Live Register are in receipt of Jobseekers Allowance, the means-tested unemployment payment, which reflects the extent of the unemployment problem now facing this country,” noted Bríd O’Brien, Head of Policy and Media with the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU).
In relation to the Minister for Social Protection Éamon Ó Cuív’s recent proposals to pilot a scheme where people on social welfare would work for their payments O’Brien said that education and training were needed rather than ‘forcing people onto unsuitable programmes’.
“It is a complete waste of money forcing people onto unsuitable programmes which will offer them little if any future prospects,” she concluded.
Since January this year 580 people have been made redundant in Mayo, these redundancies are no longer confined to the construction sector with the figures confirming that there have been 43,449 redundancies in the state this year to date. 43% of the redundancies were in construction and manufacturing.
However, 44 per cent of job losses were in the services sector and females now account for 37 per cent of redundancies, confirming that job losses continue to be spread throughout the whole economy.
Ballina County Councillor Annie May Reape (FF) last month told The Mayo News that there would be a reduction in the Live Register figures as people enter third level education.It is expected that the figure will fall again next month also.