UNEMPLOYMENT in Waterford continues to remain at crisis levels while the economy in the wider South East area is in stagnation according to a shocking new report published on Friday last.
Despite some high profile job announcements in the past year the economic climate remains grim with the numbers out of work continuing to rise.
The damning report by WIT lecturers has revealed that unemployment in the region rose by 0.6% to 12.5% in Q1 2016; against the downward national trend (8.4%; down 0.3%); the South East has experienced an employment crisis since 2002.
Shockingly it has also emerged that the quality of jobs in the region is dramatically lower than the national average and – worse still – it continues to decline.
According to the report’s authors Dr Cormac O’Keeffe and Dr Ray Griffin the national policy approach is focused on the crisis being over; it is clearly still underway in the South East.
Dr Cormac O’Keeffe, Lecturer in Finance and Economics at WIT School of Business says, “We have had five quarters of worsening unemployment data since the Government’s South East Action Plan for Jobs was launched. The Government launched the South East Action Plan for Jobs on 7 September, 2015 promising an extra 25,000 jobs in the region and 10-15% employment growth over the coming years.”
However, the report states that the Action Plan for Jobs does not address the root cause of the South East’s economic stagnation. “It says nothing about adding higher education capacity to improve educational attainment; the kind of sensible investment that would support the IDA’s marketing of the region,” commented Dr. Ray Griffin.
While there is a glimmer of good news with improvements in the property and new car sales markets there are a number of factors holding back Waterford and the region. These include lower educational attainment which the report says is a problem built up over a long-term by lower investment in higher education.
Compared with other parts of the country there is lower activity by the IDA which has continued over a 25-year period and that claims the authors of the report has resulted in the South East missing 6,312 IDA supported jobs.
