11/06/2009

20% Of Unemployment Benefit Claimants Are Foreign Nationals

The latest Live Register figures have revealed foreign nationals account for a fifth of those claiming unemployment benefits.

The high percentage is thought to reflect the mass redundancies in the construction sector, which was a major employer of foreign workers. However, there is evidence the depression in the sector has reached a floor as the number of foreign people joining dole queues is rising at a slower pace than the number of Irish.

The figures also show commuter counties continue to be the worst affected by growing unemployment.

The number of people signing on has almost doubled in the past year, with an extra 195,115 people losing their jobs so far in 2009, and continuing the record breaking amount of jobless in the state with 396,871 now claiming dole benefits.

Foreign nationals on the Live Register soared by 45,798 to 79,077 over the past year. The majority of these are from the EU accession states.

The most significant increases in joblessness were in the counties surrounding Dublin, with Kildare, Meath and Wicklow seeing numbers on the dole jumping by 118%, according to the Central Statistics Office.

In Dublin, the number on the register has risen from 47,859 to 95,184, an increase of 99%.

(DW/JM)

Related Irish News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

06 March 2014
Number Of Foreign Nationals Working Drops
24.1% of foreign nationals assigned PPS numbers in 2007 were employed five years later in 2012. The figure comes from an annual analysis of the Revenue Commissioners, the Department of Social Protection and the Central Statistics Office, based on foreign nationals who were allocated PPS numbers during the 10-year period 2002-2012.
04 July 2019
Tánaiste Condemns Libyan Missile Attack
Tánaiste Simon Coveney has condemned the recent missile attack in Libya which killed 53 migrants and injured 130 others. The attack took place on a Libyan detention centre in Tajoura on Tuesday evening, 02 July.
19 January 2016
Minister For Foreign Affairs Attends EU Meeting On Syria And Iraq
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan, has attended a meeting of European Union Foreign Minister in Brussels, to discuss Syria, Iraq, Ukraine and the Middle East Peace Process were discussed. The meeting was the first gathering of the Foreign Affairs Council in 2016.
03 June 2015
Robinson Calls For Garda To Release Kingsmill Files
The Irish Government has been urged to ensure that Garda releases all files relating to the Kingsmill Massacre to the Senior Coroner's Office. DUP Leader, Peter Robinson, accompanied by Nigel Dodds MP and Arlene Foster MLA, met with the Irish Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan on Tuesday.
09 January 2014
Crowe Travels To Iran As Part Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee Delegations
Sinn Féin spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Trade and Diaspora, Seán Crowe TD, is traveling to Iran today as part of an Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee delegation.