An Phoblacht/Republican News   ·   Thursday October 26 1995

Missing - 84,000 people

EIGHTY FOUR THOUSAND PEOPLE disappeared this week. There are no search parties for these missing people, they don't exist according to Dublin government statistics. However if you want to find them they can be seen at employment exchanges around the 26 Counties on weekdays signing on.

The 84,000 were declared missing by the Central Statistics Office in the preliminary report of their 1994 Labour Force Survey (LFS). Their survey's estimate of unemployment was 84,000 less than the live register figure. The survey conducted every year is supposed to provide a snapshot of the employment situation in the state - 47,000 households were surveyed.

So what else did the preliminary results show? Well according to the survey 49,000 new jobs were created in the 12 month period between April 1994 and '95. That's about 1,000 jobs a week. The coalition admits that 10,000 of the new places were created on employment training schemes. However the INOU claim that 21,000 places were created on schemes leaving a real net growth of 28,000 jobs.

It is unclear how many of these new jobs were part-time. We have to wait until the full survey is published. We do know that of the claimed 49,000 new positions 39,000 were in services, where many positions are part-time.

On unemployment the CSO declared that the LFS figure at 192,000 ''is considered the most accurate measure'', more accurate than the live register figure of 276,000. This measure created by people actually signing on each month is affected by ''administrative changes''.

Manipulation of unemployment figures by successive governments has been a popular activity in recent years. However this was to create a live register figure that actually understates unemployment. Now we are to believe that the live register figure is somehow strangely inflated.

Finance Minister Ruairi Quinn has no doubts. He pronounced that the survey showed that ''government employment policies are having a significant impact on the serious unemployment levels''.

The coalition cabinet meets today Thursday to discuss new policy approaches to unemployment. First item on the agenda should be - learn to count.