Minister Nash welcomes latest CSO figures which confirm the lowest number of unemployed people since 2009
30 June 2015
The Minister for Business and Employment Ged Nash TD has welcomed the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office which shows that the number of people who are unemployed is at its lowest level since 2009. Figures published today by the CSO confirm the rate in June stands at 9.7%.
The seasonally adjusted figure for the number of people who were unemployed in June fell by 500 month on month. While the percentage figure remains the same as the revised May figure, it is down significantly on the same period last year, when the unemployment rate stood at 11.4%.
Minister Nash said, “There are 35,900 more people at work now compared to June last year. This is very welcome news for those individuals, their families and their wider communities. But, there is still much more to be done to ensure that every person who wants a job can access a job by 2018.
“The percentage figures confirmed by the CSO today also show that as we target that goal of full employment, our task becomes harder. That will not deter us and both my Department through the Action Plan for Jobs and the Tánaiste’s Department through Pathways to Work will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that we create both the right environment to create jobs and give those who are unemployed the right skills, training and education opportunities to avail of those jobs.”
The figures released today are the second set of Monthly Unemployment figures from the CSO and they show that the number of people unemployed stands at 208,100 in June.
They also show that the percentage of males who are unemployed has dropped slightly to 10.8%, while the percentage of unemployed females remains unchanged at 8.3%.
Minister Nash continued, “Yesterday Government colleagues and I launched the Regional Action Plan for Jobs for the Midlands, which is the first of a series of 8 regional plans aimed at significantly increasing the creation of jobs in every part of Ireland. I believe these plans, playing to the strengths of each of our regions and aimed at improving collaboration between our agencies, local authorities and the private sector, will also help us in securing quality jobs right around the country.”