In June of this year the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency released a paper on the subject of underemploymentent in Northern Ireland. Underemploymnet has become a key policy issue of late due to improving conditions in the labour market. As the paper sets out, underemployment is...

It is estimated that around 166,700 employees, or 23% of the total in Northern Ireland earned below £7.20 per hour in April 2014. On the face of it, UK Chancellor, George Osborne's announcement that the UK minimum wage would rise to £7.20 by next year is good news for many of these workers. In the...

Temporary, short-term forms of employment in the early stages of an economic recovery are a well-established feature of the labour market; however, recent research by the OECD has raised the concern that this practice has become a more deeply ingrained, lasting characteristic in the world of work...

Spending on productive capacity includes not just ‘bricks and mortar’ but all those resources that give rise to socially useful results over time. Spend today and reap a return in the future: this is the logic of investment. It can cover investment in education and skills as well as investment in...

Ireland is expected to successfully exit the corrective arm of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) at the end of 2015. From 2016 onwards Irish budgetary policy will be subject to the requirements of the preventive arm of the SGP as well as being subject to national budgetary rules. The preventive...

This week's blog looks back at articles from 2013: Title Date Main Keyword Other Keywords Economic Development with a purpose 23-Dec Vision Taxation, Public spending, Jobs Where to now (Post-Troika)? 16-Dec Domestic economy Taxation, Vision, Jobs A Modest Proposal 09-Dec Investment Jobs, Domestic...

This week's blog looks back at articles from 2014: Ageing well 22-Dec Demographics Pensions, Social wage The Wages Elephant is in the Domestic Parlour 15-Dec Wages Macro economy, Social wage Imagining a different society 08-Dec Vision Investment, Social wage Things you always wanted to know about...

One in every seven of the Irish population (15.2%) lives on an income which is less than the official poverty line – about €202 per adult per week. Given a population of approximately 4.61 million people this implies that just over 700,000 people live at risk of poverty. In the latest edition of the...