There’s just one job vacancy for every 14 people out of work
THERE were an average of 14 people unemployed for every job vacancy l ast month, worrying new national employment figures show – with Kerry and Donegal the worst-affected counties.
The Central Bank analysis of the impact of Covid-19 on employment also found that women were worse affected than men.
The national ratio of one job posting for every 14 unemployed people has disimproved from one for every three unemployed people at the start of the year. And in the Atlantic Economic Corridor counties of Kerry, Clare, Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo, there were 22 unemployed persons per job posting in September.
In the hardest hit counties of Kerry and Donegal during the first lockdown, one in three of the workforce was jobless, as official dole f i gures show unemployment peaked across the State in April at almost 695,000 people.
The dole queue has since pared back to j ust below 343,000, but the unemployment figure was just 120,100 in pre-Covid February.
The Central Bank reported yesterday: ‘At the April peak, Kerry and Donegal had almost a third of their labour force in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.’
But the same two counties also had the fastest bounceback before the latest lockdown shut down the economy again, it said.
Donegal TD and Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said: ‘As the Central Bank has reported, a third of
Kerry and Donegal’s labour force were in receipt of the PUP in April – higher than any other counties in the State... As public health restrictions tightened in October, Kerry and Donegal saw the sharpest increase in PUP recipients.’
Mr Doherty said the reasons for this are because both counties are more reliant on hospitality and tourism in employment and economic activity than others.
Mr Doherty added that this is ‘in part a result of a decade of Government policy which has neglected counties such as Donegal and Kerry’.
He said the Government ‘ must ensure that proper measures are i n place to support incomes, jobs and businesses’ in these areas.
The Central Bank reported: ‘Rising unemployment and fewer job openings has led to a large rise in the number of unemployed persons per job posting, says data f r om Indeed.com.
‘This ratio is an important indicator of the scale of the “re- employment” challenge. Nationally, the ratio has increased from three unemployed persons per job posting pre- Covid-19, to 14 by September 2020.’
The bank’s report added: ‘The regional dynamics of the Covid-19 labour market shock are influenced by pre-Covid employment patterns and structural factors. In particular, in Atlantic Economic Corridor counties, there is a concentration of employment in tourism, traditional sectors and public services.’
Women’s employment was worst affected by Covid-19, the Central Bank also found. It observed that during the phased re- opening after the f i rst l ockdown, ‘ younger, female workers have increasingly taken up wage subsidy supports, whilst older males have moved off the scheme’.
‘Scale of the challenge’