The Fianna Fail Green government will try to use any means possible to disguise the true state of the economy- whether that’s by using GDP (gross domestic product) based calculations (which includes corporate profits of multinationals based here who repatriate those funds!) instead of the more realistic GNP (gross national product) –or by manipulating the unemployment figures so that the disastrous collapse of the job’s situation remains obscured.
The Government’s figures put unemployment for July 2010 at 13.7% yet the Central Statistics Office places unemployment at 16.5%. So there’s something up with the figures here. If we add in the self employed who are looking for work but can’t claim welfare, then there are casual workers in need of full time work, unwilling emigrants (60,000 will leave over the next few months), tens of thousands are remaining in education because there is no other option, further tens of thousands are staying in the family home and in need of work and not to mention all those who have retired early for no other reason than because they know the state of the jobs market at the moment. The CSO estimate of 16.5% includes some of these ‘discouraged’ workers but if we take all the above categories into account the real level of unemployment rises to nearly 18.5%!
The Government state then that there are 288,000 people in need of work when their own figures put the total amount signing on in some form at 452,000! There are 50,000 males under the age of 24 out of work. The 18.5% level puts us just behind Latvia, at 22%, and Spain, at 19.7%. We truly are in the midst of a catastrophe.
The source of this jobs crisis is easy to locate though- investment in new fixed capital over the last 2 years in Ireland has dropped by 47.5% (by 60% according to ICTU’s calculations!) which means the rich are saying to themselves – “Oh it’s not profitable to spend now so I’ll sit on my cash til wages are forced down enough so that investment is attractive”. Fianna Fail and the Greens by punishing those on welfare are doing the bidding of their masters, the corporate elite, as brutalising those on welfare makes hanging onto work despite lower wages seem like the only option.
It’s vital we continue to build the Right To Work Campaign and mobilise workers and the unemployed- the next protest takes place on August 28th at 2pm from Parnell Square.