asked the Minister for Finance if he will outline the main factors militating against an increase in employment in the State; the Government's plans to remove any such negative factors; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Employment Increase.
87.
The Programme for National Recovery identified the size and burden of the national debt, high interest rates, the stagnation in productive investment over the previous five years and the erosion of our competitive position by cost pressures as being among the principal factors inhibiting sustained economic development, including employment expansion.
The programme also outlined the Government's strategy to address these problems. A fiscal policy which faced the financial realities was identified as the key to putting the economy back on the path to long term sustained economic growth. Consequently, the strategy sought to create a fiscal, exchange rate and competitiveness climate conducive to such growth, supplemented by an intensification of practical measures to generate increased job opportunities on a sectoral basis.
Evidence is mounting that the strategy is working and that an environment supportive of increased investment, the key to expansion of sustainable employment, is emerging. Confirmation is to be found in the recently released results of the 1988 Labour Force Survey which shows that the previous unfavourable trend in total employment has been reversed.