Youth Unemployment - A broader view
Youth unemployment remains one of the most enduring and destructive legacies of the financial crash and the great recession that followed it. Rates of unemployment among young people (those aged under 25) increased dramatically over the 2007 - 2009 period. The NERI's Quarterly Economic Facts...
NERI Post Budget Seminar
The NERI seminar series resumed yesterday with an analysis of Budget 2016—presentations from each of the three speakers are available below. The speakers outlined the budgetary choices facing Irish society with a special focus on issues related to childcare and housing. Thanks to Michael Taft (...
Monday Blog: Budgeting for the future
The proposed budget for 2016 (Republic of Ireland) will go for approval by the relevant European authorities in the coming weeks. One can expect a favourable outcome from that quarter albeit with a caution that the Government ought to be spending less and paying down more of the national debt. In...
Who Gains for a Minimum Wage Increase?
As part of next week’s Budget the Government is likely to announce an increase to the statutory Minimum Wage. The increase follows the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission. The latest NERI Research inBrief estimates some of the effects of the proposed increase in the minimum wage. Specifically...
Some Implications of a Living Wage
Earlier this week, the inaugural Living Wage Forum was convened to explore the idea and potential of the concept of a Living Wage for the Republic of Ireland. As part of a contribution from the Living Wage Technical Group, I outlined some of the implications of a Living Wage for employees, employers...
Is Ireland’s Welfare System Excessively Generous?
Earlier this week, the OECD launched their new Economic Survey of Ireland and noted both progress and challenges for the economy since their last assessment in 2013. The report notes the significant role played by the redistribution system (taxes and in particular transfers) in reducing the...
Little point in many mothers returning to work
It makes little financial sense for many Irish mothers to return to work – that’s the conclusion of a new EU research study looking at the realities of the back-to-work choice faced by women across EU member states. The study, by Olga Rastrigina and Alina Verashchagina, focuses on the financial...
Monday Blog: Good news for a change - but now is the time to invest
At the end of August the Central Statistics Office in the Republic of Ireland published three timely and telling statistical releases: the Earnings, Hours and Employment Costs Survey (EHECS), the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) and the Annual Population and Migration Estimates. QHNS...
Recent changes in public sector employment in OECD countries
The scale of public sector employment varies considerably across developed economies; however, the vast majority of EU member states are in a process of reducing the size of central government employment—between 2008 and 2013, Sweden was the only EU country that increased the number of general...
Monday Blog: How precarious is new work?
Suppose you plan to take out a bank loan or mortgage … the first question you will be asked relates to your salary slip or income statement. But, what if you don’t know for sure what your income is next week let alone next year? Many self-employed workers find themselves in this situation. And, a...