Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 May 2018
436. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the percentage and number of unskilled workers over 50 years of age who received full-time employment through Turas Nua from April 2016 to April 2017; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19116/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department provides a range of activation supports catering for long-term unemployed jobseekers and those most distant from the labour market to secure and sustain full-time paid employment. These supports include the JobPath service. The JobPath service is designed to support people who are long-term unemployed to secure and sustain paid employment. This service is delivered by two companies, Seetec Ltd. and Turas Nua Ltd.
My Department does not collate and process outcomes based on skills profile of clients nor are there defined categories such as skilled or unskilled and therefore the specific information requested by the Deputy is not available. However, I can advise the Deputy that approximately 73,000 Jobseekers started their engagement with JobPath service between April 2016 and April 2017, and some 20,500 or 28% were over the age of 50.
Of this cohort, some 63% had been unemployed for over three years and a further 11% were over two years unemployed.
My Department has commenced an econometric review of the JobPath service which, it is expected, will assist in accurately estimating the impact of JobPath interventions on people’s labour market outcomes. My Department is developing a new approach using a cluster analysis. The review will spilt long term jobseekers who have engaged with JobPath into clusters based on age, gender, location employment history, education and so forth. The review will then examine the actual interventions which each of these clusters experienced and using a statistical analysis to identify which interventions led to the best outcomes for each cohort. This will provide a sound evidential base for the improvement of existing activation services and the design of new ones.
Work on this review has commenced and it is expected to be completed by Q4 2018.
I trust that this information is of some assistance to the Deputy.
