Economic News: Unemployment Level Reaches 30-Minute High
Posted on | July 2, 2009
Some people who object to being
unemployed
Ireland’s official unemployment rate has reached its highest level in 30 minutes, according to the CSO’s latest Panicky National Survey.
The Central Statistics Office say almost 253,015 people were officially unemployed by 11.16 a.m. this morning, an increase of almost 0.004% since approximately 10.48 a.m.
This pushes the bi-hourly adjusted unemployment rate to 12.004%.
The new figure was accounted for by today’s closure of a building supplier in Carlow leaving 15 people jobless.
That meant the total number of people with jobs was down 0.0075%, or 15, between the last quarter of the 11th and the first quarter of the 12th hour this morning.
This broadly confirms the claim by the CSO that the construction sector was the worst hit during that half hour window of economic activity.
However, the education sector actually recorded an increase in the same time period, mostly due to the 11a.m. opening of a new language school in Galway city which is employing three people.
Consumer Confidence “Up”
A new survey by the Malevolence and Stupidity Research Institute has revealed that consumer confidence has actually increased in recent weeks despite the job losses and tax hikes.
Economist Aughden Hissop of the MSRI says Irish retailers are reporting a gradual return to Celtic Tiger-era levels of confident behaviour amongst people during their shopping trips.
“A proprietor of a high street boutique told me how one middle-aged lady, after trying on a bathing suit in the changing rooms, walked out into the middle of the shop to show her daughters. For a lady of above average weight to display herself to the 20 or so people in the shop like that requires a high level of confidence I think you’ll agree,” says Mr Hissop.
“I heard another of a man in an upmarket restaurant who arrogantly spieled out a long list of his rights as a consumer to an inexperienced waiter who had made a mistake with his order.
“Remarkable to think that Irish consumers are back to acting like the coarse, nouveau-riche vulgarians we were during the boom, when as little as six months ago we were so lacking in confidence none of us could even look a Burger King employee in the eye…
An Bord Snip To Be Downsized
The recently established An Bord Snip Nua has announced it will be halving its current panel of advisors from four members to two in order to cut costs.
The decision was made when the group advised itself that two of its members – ex-Governor of the Central Bank Maurice O’Connell and the HSE’s former Deputy Chief Executive Pat McLaughlin – were massively overpaid in relation to their competence and should be made surplus to requirements.
Minister of Finance Brian Lenihan said he believed the panel took an “honest, objective look at what the figures revealed regarding their own cost-effectiveness.
“They came to the impartial conclusion that two of their numbers had in the past proved poor administrators of other institutions, namely the Central Bank and the HSE, and so have no right to dictate terms to anyone else.”
Another recommendation by An Bord Snip was the abolition and amalgamation of a number of extraneous government departments.
It was reported in today’s Irish Daily Mail that under the group’s proposals the Department of Vice, Violence and the Perverted Arts will be abolished.
It will also recommended that the Department of Trivialities, the Department of Vague Ephemera and the Department of Fads, Whims and Trends will be “reorganised”.
With the report due to be delivered to the Department of Finance next week, it is widely expected the Finance Department itself will be amalgamated into a new Department of Internet, Rural and Monetary Affairs under the auspices of de Valera scion and FF royalty Éanneas O’Kweev.
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