Unemployment rate is steady
Ireland's unemployment rate remained steady last month at 4.5 per cent,
according to a government report.
The report said the number of people receiving state unemployment benefits
dropped by 0.9 per cent over the year to 158,752 in this economically
booming country of 4.2million, but the overall rate remained unchanged.
The average unemployment rate throughout the 12-nation zone including
Ireland that used the euro in 2006 fell to 7.5 per cent in December a
record low since such records began to be collected in 1993 according
to Eurostat.
The EU statistical agency said the bloc-wide unemployment rate was 7.6
per cent.
Ireland has the fourth-lowest unemployment rate in Europe behind Denmark,
the Netherlands and Estonia.
The Irish jobs market has remained buoyant despite the arrival of more
than 200,000 immigrants largely from Poland and other Eastern European
nations, following the EU’s expansion from 15 to 25 members in May
2004.
Ireland was one of only three EU states — alongside Britain and
Sweden — to open its employment market immediately to the 2004 newcomers.
However Ireland — like neighboring Britain — has barred free
access for jobseekers from the two newest EU members Bulgaria and Romania
which joined the bloc last month.
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