Women in the Economy and Labour Market
Last week, on International Women's Day, I spoke at the ICTU joint women's committee seminar on the topic of ' Women in the Economy and the Labour Market'. My paper highlighted the latest data on the current challenges facing women, North and South, as they participate in the economy, enter or leave...
Almost two-thirds of unemployed are long term unemployed
As total unemployment rates have increased across Europe the proportion of total unemployed who are long-term unemployed has increased especially since the first Quarter of 2009. The rate in the Republic of Ireland has risen sharply and overtook the EU 15 average in the last quarter of 2009...
Is a ‘living wage’ such a mad idea?
Over recent years I have been involved in publishing a number of research papers and reports on issues related to low income in Ireland. Among these, work with the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice focused on establishing the cost of a minimum essential standard of living in Ireland and...
Wealth in Ireland: stable but what of its distribution?
Indicator 4.4 from the NERI's latest Quarterly Economics Facts (QEF) document shows that despite the financial crisis, net financial wealth per person has been remarkably stable across Europe. In Ireland, the average resident possessed €26,507 of financial wealth (such as cash, bank deposits, or...
Income and Earnings: an insight
Discussion on various policy options and decisions by Government is often framed in the context of the income distribution and the impact on families and individuals above and below certain income thresholds. Whether it is tax increases, welfare reductions, wage changes or the new property tax...
1 in 5 children at risk of poverty
The proportion of the Republic of Ireland's children living in households whose income is below the 60% of median income poverty line has experienced limited change over the past few years. While the years 2006-07 recorded a decrease from 22.3% to 19.9%, by 2010 almost 1 in every 5 children (19.5%)...
One fifth of Workers are ‘low-paid’
Eurostat, the EU Statistics Agency, recently released new data on the proportion of low-paid workers in Ireland and across the EU. Their analysis defines low-earnings in relative terms measured as those earning two thirds or less of the national median gross hourly earnings. Median earnings are the...
The growth in part-time work
In the current edition of Mandate's regular publication, Shopfloor, I have an article highlighting the growth in part-time work over recent years. In it I highlight some of the material from the recent NERI conference on the unemployment crisis. The key points are: While the headline figures on job...