Monday Blog: Where to now (Post-Troika)?
A very strong narrative is gathering pace abroad and at home: There was ‘absolutely’ no alternative to ‘austerity’ in the case of Ireland once the storm broke in 2008; Ireland displayed remarkable and exceptional resilience, consensus and passivity in accepting the ‘tough’ decisions that ‘had to be...
What have a night-club dancer and an economist got in common? – CSO data and average earnings
The timeliest source of data on wages for PAYE workers in the Republic of Ireland comes from the “Earnings Hours and Employment Costs Survey” (EHECS). This is a very extensive survey and survey responses cover roughly 70% of employees. In comparison, surveys such as the National Employment Survey or...
Irelands Unemployment and Youth Unemployment Crisis
External event contribution Presentation to Fianna Fail Seminar November 27th 2013, Dublin.
Monday Blog: A Modest Proposal
Suppose you were the Minister of Finance in 2009 and that you were held up and forced to hand over a lot of money to a number of bust banks?. You didn’t have the money at the time so you took it out of a special pension savings fund built up by taxpayers meant for the next 50 years. Suppose that, in...
Why is unemployment down 40,000, but the Live Register only down by 20,000?
The latest live register figures present something of a puzzle. Comparing to January to November 2013 with the same period last year numbers on the Live Register are down roughly 20,000 people. This is almost entirely due to a drop of new people claiming Job Seekers Benefit (new claimants are down...
NERI Seminar Belfast: Full Employment
Slides from presentation made by Amna Silim of IPPR at the NERI Seminar Belfast Wednesday 27/11/13. A link to the full paper is here
Employment up for over 35s, but younger workers still losing jobs and leaving
The latest labour market data (released on 26 November 2013) is generally positive in terms of employment, but slightly negative in terms of earnings. However, strange patterns are emerging in terms of what age groups are getting the new jobs. Overall unemployment is down to 12.6% from 14.3% a year...
Monday Blog: Why we need a new deal for young people in Europe
While there may be grounds for celebration in the departure of An Troika, unemployment, under-employment and precarious employment is the lot of too many young people across Europe. Ireland (Republic), at 27%, is in the acute ward just behind Greece, Spain, Croatia and Portugal which, in each case...
Monday Blog: Three reasons (at least) why we need a new Investment Bank (S+M+E)
Speaking at a recent conference of the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises I outlined, in my presentation , a number of key challenges facing public policy over the coming decades and how Irish-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to be facilitated in much more ambitious strategy and...
Are wages the problem for the hospitality sector?
On 30th October water restrictions will be imposed in Dublin and other parts of Leinster. It was reported in The Irish Times that there was 'real anger' amongst business owners as water restrictions are imposed from 8pm. However the Restaurants Association of Ireland previously described itself as...