Don’t believe the FG/Labour Government's jobs hype

» Eoin Ó Broin

In the two years since Fine Gael and Labour took office, the headline employment and unemployment figures show virtually no change

GOVERNMENT MINISTERS and backbench TDs from Fine Gael and Labour have been out in force again, proclaiming that the economy has turned a corner.

The publication of the Quarterly National Household Survey at the end of August showed the first significant increase in jobs, including full-time employment, since Fine Gael and Labour took office.

The report highlighted that in the 12 months up to the second quarter of this year, 33,700 jobs were created. Of these, 21,600 were full-time.

This is good news, especially for those who now have jobs. But is it a vindication of the Governments jobs strategy?

Fine Gael and Labour think so. They are now claiming that, having made the unemployment crisis their number one priority since taking office, their hard work is paying dividends.

Unfortunately – both for the Fine Gael/Labour Coalition and for the rest of us – the figures from the Central Statistics Office suggest otherwise.

If there is a single word that jumps out at anyone who bothers to take a detailed look at the figures in the August Quarterly National Household Survey, it is stagnation.

In the two years since Fine Gael and Labour took office, the headline employment and unemployment figures show virtually no change.

Unemployment has fallen by 16,700. Half of these are now in work; the rest have dropped out of the labour force ––while some have gone into education, the majority have emigrated.

This means that, since Fine Gael and Labour took office, employment has risen by a paltry 4,300 per year.

At this rate it would take 35 years to return to pre-recession levels of unemployment!

The reason for this is very simple. The Government has not made job creation its number one priority since taking office. It is not investing in job creation and retention.

Instead, Fine Gael and Labour have prioritised stabilising the banks and servicing the banking-related debt that was foisted onto the state by Fianna Fáil.

In order to fund all of this, Fine Gael and Labour have slashed government spending and heaped tax after tax on low- and middle-income families.

They have done this knowing that private sector investment continues to fall.

And so, as night follows day, Government policies of austerity (spending cuts and tax hikes) are strangling the domestic economy. In turn, employment and unemployment rates continue to stagnate.

If you want a statistic that sums up the Government’s record since taking office it is not the most recent employment figure but the most recent emigration figure.

In the 12 months up to April 2013, 89,000 people left the state. That’s a staggering 1,700 people per week or 244 a day, most of them young and in search of work.

The Government may claim that the number of unemployed young people is falling but so too is the number of young people with jobs. It seems emigration is the Government’s secret solution to the jobs crisis.

So the next time you hear a Government TD claiming progress on the jobs front, make sure you set them straight with the facts.