Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)

This year, more than 3.1 billion will be at work in the world at large. This is a greater number than ever before, yet there is a pervading sense of crisis over jobs. This is because there are now 205 million people officially unemployed in the world. A high percentage of these are under the age of 25. It is often overlooked that the quality of the jobs available seems to be in decline, especially for routine white collar workers in rich countries. This country is no exception to what is happening in the rest of the world. More than one in every seven jobs, or approximately one in six, created during the Celtic tiger era has disappeared in recent years. Official unemployment is now edging towards 15%, which figure does not count people on schemes, those who have gone back to full-time education because they cannot get a job and, more important, people who are emigrating. The Department of Finance estimates that net emigration between April 2010 and April 2012 will reach 120,000. If anything, this is understated.

Approximately 15,000 fewer people are at work than in the last quarter of 2010. One in every three people under 25 is out of a job. What is most significant is that more than one in two unemployed people, or effectively 60%, have been jobless for more than a year. That is scary. Just two years ago, that figure was only one in five.

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