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Unemployment Data

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 May 2016

Tuesday, 17 May 2016

Questions (502)

Charlie McConalogue

Question:

502. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of unemployed persons who exited the live register to a long-term labour activation programme including community employment, Tús - the work placement initiative, back to work, back to education, JobBridge or a programme run by Solas; the programme to which they exited; and the percentages of those participants withdrawing who were short-term unemployed and who were long-term unemployed by programme and by quarter for 2014 and for 2015. [9815/16]

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Written answers

In the first instance, the Government’s primary strategy to tackle unemployment is to create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth. However, the Government also recognises the need for additional measures to address unemployment in the interim while the economy recovers. This is the rationale behind the Government’s Pathways to Work Strategy which is being led by the Department of Social Protection.

Job activation programmes are an important part of these additional measures. Data on the number of participants in job activation programmes is reported monthly by programme by the Central Statistics Office. Table 1 shows quarterly average participation for 2014 and 2015.

Data on detailed movements from the Live Register to individual programmes are not readily available. However, “Took up Educational, Training or Employment Placement” is noted as a possible destination when a claim for Jobseeker’s Benefit or Jobseekers’ Assistance is closed. Table 2 shows the number of closures to this destination category by quarter for 2014 and 2015, as well as the percentage of short and long term registrants.

Table 1 Live Register Activation Programmes (average number of participants) by Type of Activation Programme and Quarter

-

Q1 2014

Q2 2014

Q3 2014

Q4 2014

Q1 2015

Q2 2015

Q3 2015

Q4 2015

Back to work allowance scheme - employee strand

9

6

5

4

2

0

0

0

Back to work enterprise allowance scheme - self employed strand

10214

10526

10707

11024

11271

11545

11767

11852

Short-term enterprise allowance

485

562

578

496

451

479

476

426

Total back to work payments

10708

11094

11290

11524

11723

12024

12243

12278

Other activation programmes - DSP part-time job incentive

299

322

326

391

397

393

379

431

Other activation programmes - TUS - community work placement initiative

7249

7373

7471

7807

7861

7974

7907

7880

Other activation programmes - JobBridge

6527

6697

6228

6571

6125

5670

4767

4798

Other activation programmes – Gateway

52

315

625

1429

1872

2150

2305

2358

Total other activation programmes

14126

14707

14649

16197

16255

16187

15359

15467

Community employment schemes (excluding supervisors)

22691

23141

23059

23033

23480

23558

22815

22675

FAS full time training for unemployed people

8490

8285

7200

8705

7764

7794

6285

7358

Back to education courses - vocational training opportunities scheme (VTOS)

5000

5000

5000

5000

5000

5000

5000

5000

Back to education courses - back to education allowance (BTEA)

24299

7219

6993

22427

23838

15222

7344

18284

Total back to education courses

29299

12219

11993

27427

28838

20222

12344

23617

Total

85314

69447

68190

86886

88060

79785

69045

81394

Table 2: Closures of jobseekers claims to Educational, Training or Employment Placements by quarter and duration

Quarter

Short term registrants

% Short term registrants

Long term registrants

% Long term registrants

Total

Qtr 1 2014

3212

43%

4222

57%

7434

Qtr 2 2014

3165

41%

4532

59%

7697

Qtr 3 2014

4637

46%

5346

54%

9983

Qtr 4 2014

4667

47%

5243

53%

9910

Qtr 1 2015

3614

47%

4016

53%

7630

Qtr 2 2015

3664

45%

4502

55%

8166

Qtr 3 2015

5858

47%

6534

53%

12392

Qtr 4 2015

4848

44%

6106

56%

10954

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