Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

A recovery in the labour market is well under way, in line with the improvement in the overall economy, with an increase of over 90,000 in employment over the past two years. As a result, the unemployment rate has fallen from a peak of 15% in early 2012 to 10%, with the prospect of further significant reductions this year and next. The improvement in the labour market has been effective in helping particularly vulnerable groups. For example, long-term unemployment has been falling, from a peak of over 200,000 three years ago to 123,000 at the end of 2014. Equally, youth unemployment has fallen from a peak of 80,000 in 2009 to 39,000 at the end of 2014. These improvements in unemployment have been reflected in a reduction in the number of jobless people dependent on welfare payments. The live register, which includes some part-time and casual workers as well as people who are wholly unemployed, has fallen by over 100,000 since it peaked in late 2011.

The Government's primary strategy is to reduce unemployment through policies that create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity. As already indicated, this strategy has been succeeding, with an increase of over 90,000 in employment over the past two years. The Pathways to Work strategy is designed to ensure that no one is left behind in the recovery and, in particular, that as many as possible of the new jobs are taken up by unemployed people from the live register. It provides for enhanced engagement of services and additional activation measures for jobseekers while the recovery takes hold. Pathways to Work has a particular focus on those who have been out of work for long periods and on young people whose employment prospects were severely impacted by the recession.

There is a further increase in the focus on long-term unemployment in 2015. Already there have been supports for the long-term unemployed under the Pathways to Work programme. Some 57,000 places on a range of further and higher education courses were reserved for the long-term unemployed. The JobsPlus recruitment subsidy, launched in the second half of 2013, is designed specifically for the long-term unemployed. This incentive scheme encourages employers to recruit long-term unemployed people. By the end of February 2015, almost 4,300 employees were being subsidised under the scheme, 62% of whom had been unemployed for more than two years prior to being recruited. I thank Members of the Opposition for their support for this programme, which saw a doubling in the budget of the numbers supported last year, from 3,000 to 6,000. Already this quarter, some 4,300 long-term unemployed have gained employment. All the international surveys show it is extremely difficult to get people who have been unemployed for more than two years back into jobs.

JobPath aims to provide additional capacity to the public employment service to enable it engage more systematically with long-term unemployed jobseekers. Referrals to JobPath providers are expected to commence in the second half of 2015. Some 57,000 education and training places will continue to be reserved for the long-term unemployed in 2015. A minimum of 16,000 places for the long-term unemployed will also be provided through key public employment programmes. These include an expansion of the JobsPlus initiative.

On youth unemployment, the youth guarantee implementation plan identifies measures to build on services and initiatives already in place and to increase their impact by tailoring them to address the particular challenges of youth unemployment. The main plank of the guarantee is assistance to young people aged 18 to 25 in finding and securing sustainable jobs through the public employment service. For those who do not find employment, additional offers are provided, with most offers, approximately 70%, being in further education or training. Others are in community based employment programmes such as CE, Gateway and Tús, or through the JobsPlus employment subsidy for private employment. During 2014, almost 25,000 places were taken up under the youth guarantee.

In addition, the following measures are being taken in 2015. As of January 2015, the new process for engaging with young people in Intreo centres has commenced. The First Steps developmental internship programme for from 1,500 to 2,000 young people was launched in February 2015. It aims to offer young people who are particularly distant from the labour market a work experience opportunity with sponsor employers. JobsPlus for youth was also launched in February. It offers employers who recruit a young person under 25 years of age who was unemployed for four months or more a subsidy of up to €416 per month. The duration unemployed threshold for other age cohorts is 12 months. Therefore, the initiative is an incentive to consider employing young people under 25. An allocation of 1,000 places is being made on the Tús scheme for young people. A pilot programme is being introduced to support young unemployed people to take up opportunities under schemes such as Your First EURES job and a minimum of 2,000 training places for under-25s are being ring-fenced by the Department of Education and Skills, under a follow-up to the Momentum programme.

I want to touch on an area where the indications are that it will be particularly successful, the area of employer engagement. The Government is committed to taking action to ensure that all of our citizens benefit from the growth in the Irish economy. A key priority is to help people to make the transition from welfare to work. One of our commitments is to work with the business community to connect them with unemployed people and to support them to provide jobs and work experience opportunities. Our network of employer engagement representatives across the country supports this activity. We are already seeing the benefits of this engagement, particularly in regard to the commitment of companies to the employment and youth activation charter which was launched last year. To date, almost 200 companies have signed the charter. Charter companies commit to considering unemployed people on the live register when identifying potential candidates for roles within their organisations. For people who are not quite job-ready, companies offer a range of other supports, such as work placements, participation in upskilling programmes or advice on CVs, job-seeking skills or interview preparation.

The Department is currently expanding its employer support services to offer an account management service to employers by appointing a number of key account managers. The role of these account managers is to identify employment opportunities across the country and to build a strong relationship with the private sector, so that when opportunities or vacancies arise, the first port of call will be the live register and people who have been long-term unemployed. We can help and support the unemployed by ensuring they get the training and advice they need and by linking with employment opportunities, whether in urban or rural areas, to ensure people from the live register get these opportunities first. Far too many of those who lost their jobs at the beginning of this recession are still on the live register and have not been successful in gaining employment. As recovery spreads out from urban areas, it should be our priority to recruit people from the live register.

We must ensure people are not left behind. The www.jobsireland.ievacancy advertisement website from the Department is the largest and most used job website service in the State in 2015. It has advertised 32,000 positions across all industries and skill levels. Of the employers using the service in 2014, 91% rated positive in the annual employers' survey.

Last month, the food and grocery industry opened its doors to more than 1,000 young people during Feeding Ireland's Future 2015. Coca-Cola, Nestlé Ireland and Musgraves were among 26 companies which provided advice to jobseekers on pre-employment skills and career options. Feedback from the participants has been very positive, with 98% feeling more confident about applying for a job and 87% likely to consider a job in the sector. The employer engagement team also provides support for contractors engaged in the schools building programme across the country by identifying suitably qualified potential employees, and it is engaged with the contracting agencies and groups responsible for the Grangegorman redevelopment programme and the national children's hospital.

Everybody in the House has a significant responsibility to young people, everybody who lost their jobs at the beginning of the recession or who left school and did not get an opportunity to go to work. We must ensure the people who are most distant from the workplace get the best opportunities to get back into employment and participate in the recovery that has started. The 10% figure for the live register published today is very positive but it is still far too high. We must work extremely hard to ensure people in our communities have the opportunity to get back into employment.

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