The number of people signing on the live register has dropped to the lowest recorded since October 2008 – but concerns have been raised over the number of young people that are signed on long term.
In June of this year, the number of people registered fell 1.8pc from the figure in May to 259,200, according to new figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
However, some 11,000 young people are unemployed long term, a figure that causes some concern for the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI).
The number of those aged under 25 signing on the live register in June 2017 was 31,732 – an increase of 1,479 compared to the May 2017 figure of 30,253.
“While we are disappointed at the increase in young people signing on, this can – in part – be explained by seasonal trends,” James Doorley, NYCI deputy director said.
“The overall decrease in youth unemployment since 2012 has been welcome; however, we must not lose sight of the underlying problem of long term youth unemployment. At 11,711, a substantial cohort of young people has been unemployed for 12 months or more, with 3,683 unemployed for 3 years or more.”
Mr Doorley called on Government to commit to reducing the number of young people under 26 who are long term unemployed to under 5,000 by the end of 2018.
“It is vital we support young jobseekers into education, training and work experience and prevent the drift into long-term joblessness,” he said.
The number of male claimants in the year to June 2017 dropped by 14.9pc to 148,900 while the number of female claimants decreased by 11.9pc to 110,300.
Last month also saw 29,852 new registrants on the live register with females making up 51.1pc of the new registrants.
Some 56,337 casual and part-time workers were on the live register in June, a percentage increase of 0.8pc on the previous year.
The Live Register is not a measure of unemployment, as people with part-time work can be entitled to benefits.
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