Rate of unemployed women in Mayo continues to rise

Rate of unemployed women in Mayo continues to rise


Trevor Quinn

The rate of women on the live register in Mayo has risen by seven per cent in the last twelve months and by more than 40 per cent over the last two years, new CSO figures have revealed.
The alarming figures show that the figure jumped from 3,315 in February 2009 before climbing steeply to 4,365 in February 2010. The rate of female unemployment in the county is now 4,680.
Chief Economist with KBC Bank Austin Hughes said we are seeing a alternative type of recession that is affecting women. “The deterioration for women in the workforce seems to be more notable of late,” he said.
The decline of the retail, manufacture and tourism sector has compounded the collapse of the construction industry and this has seen a sharp increase in women losing their jobs. While the rate of men on the live register continues to show signs of stabilising, the number of women receiving social welfare is climbing at an alarming rate.
In Westport 694 women are now on the live register compared to 619 twelve months ago, a 12 per cent increase. In Castlebar the rate of female unemployment increased by 39 per cent between 2009 and 2010. The past twelve months has seen a further increase of more than 14 per cent.
Ballina has also seen a seismic change in the proportion of women in unemployment during recent times. While the rate of unemployment has only increased by one per cent in the past year,  there was a 30 per cent increase in the period between February 2009 and February 2010.
“In the early stages, job losses and unemployment were particularly severe among men; now we’re seeing a greater proportional worsening among women. “The recession has moved from construction to areas like retailing and broader consumer spending – where women form  a larger part of the workforce,” added Mr Hughes.
The Director of the Small Firms Association, Avine McNally stated last week that the live register figures show a decrease of 1,700 in the month of February which is to be welcomed.  This is the second month in a row where the live register has shown decreases and shows that the jobs market would appear to be stabilising, however, we cannot become complacent – employment remains the single biggest policy challenge.
“Some worrying trends are emerging with a 52 per cent annual rise on the number of long term claimants on the live register and the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Innovation announcing over 8,000 redundancies since the start of the year - this equates to on average 135 people a day losing their job.
“The outlook for job creation is weak, and will remain slow until greater growth occurs in the economy.  The common agenda must be to promote economic growth, to adopt the right policies to ensure that growth comes with jobs, and to increase labour market efficiency to allow a better match between demand and supply. Job creation must be at the heart of the recovery policies,” said McNally.