A recently published report from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) says this will be the sixteenth successive month with 400,000 on the live registrar.
The report, published today, says the annual increase in the live registrar has seen the number of those unemployed rise by almost 5.5pc, with a monthly decrease in those signing on for the month of September alone.
“On a seasonally adjusted basis there was a monthly decrease of 5,400 in the Live Register in September 2010. The number of persons on the Live Register now stands at 442,417, which represents an annual increase of 22,563 (+5.4pc) in the unadjusted series. This compares with an increase of 30,198 (+6.9pc) in the year to August 2010,” according to the report.
Much worse
Labour Party’s Willie Penrose TD commented: “This figure (442,417 people on the live registrar) would be much worse were it not for the 5,000 people plus, who are leaving the country every month.”
“This is the sixteenth successive month where the live register figures have exceeded 400,000,” he continued, estimating that the real cost of every person on the registrar was around €20,000 in terms of tax forgone and social welfare payments.
While the small decline in live register figures is welcome, Penrose believes that “the underlying pattern remains unchanged, and virtually all of the decline recorded today can be attributed to factors such as students returning to college,” and urged the Government to hold an election in order to “bring the country back to economic recovery”.