Jobless figures continue to rise in Limerick with 23,415 on live register
THE number of people out of work in Limerick now numbers nearly 23,500, "frightening" new figures show.
According to figures just released by the Central Statistics Office, some 23,415 people are now on the live register - with 16,490 of them
in the city. The figures show a month-on-month rise of 288 in the city, and 267 in the county overall, reflecting a number of small-scale job losses.
Labour's spokesperson on health, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan has accused the government is having "no handle on unemployment, particularly in the Mid-West."
And she said it is "depressing and unforgivable" that the government has not acted to begin employing people under the regeneration programme - which the Mid-West jobs task force has said could provide employment to more than 7,000 people.
"Yet there is no will to introduce the job creation elements of this programme. Despite all the talk, there has been nothing done in relation to job creation," Deputy O'Sullivan told the Limerick Leader, pointing out that plans for a Lynx Cargo Hub at Shannon Airport - which could have given 500 well-paid jobs to the area - appear to have been thrown out.
"There is the Lynx Cargo project in Shannon, and the proposed development to he back of Vistakon (in Plassey].
"But none of these have happened. I am meeting people on a daily basis who are desperate as to what to do. They have lost their jobs, they have mortgages they cannot pay. They are in a situation where they are at a stage where they cannot up sticks and go to another country.
People are genuinely desperate and do not know what to do," she added.
Mayor of Limerick, Cllr Maria Byrne, said: "Every day you pick up the newspaper, you see job losses. It's quite frightening that the numbers are increasing all the time. We need more incentives, and more creative thinking in terms of employment.
"The agencies that are out there need to come together in ways of job creation. A lot of businesses have been located outside of Limerick. We have not got a Minister at the cabinet table, whereas jobs have been created in the rest of the region."
In the county, the queue for benefits at Kilmallock's social welfare office now numbers 2,898, while in Newcastle West, there are 3,739 people out of work.
According to the Central Statistics Office figures, the number of people signing on nationwide, when adjusted for seasonal factors, was up 2,500 from July to 455,000 in August.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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