OK so I know its a real and accurate figure, but the last couple of weeks I have watched/heard a few radio shows where this figure is repeatedly bandied around.
Ming Flanagan was using it to attack some guy who I can't remember now on the Vincent Brown show last week (he was trying to defend FGs dream of getting 100,000 people back to work).
Ming repeatedly said "if you get 100,000 back to work, what about the other 350,000".
So Ming, and others who use this 450,000 figure all the time think that Ireland is aiming to have not a single person unemployed?
Am I not right in thinking that even when we were the "2nd richest nation on the planet" during the Tiger, we still had around 150,000 not in work?
The number of people unemployed in Ireland is 304,500, as per the CSO's QNHS. See here:
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The figure you refer to is the Live Register, which is not a true measure of unemployment. See here:
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"The Live Register is not designed to measure unemployment.
It includes part-time workers (those who work up to three days a week), seasonal and casual workers entitled to Jobseeker’s Benefit or Allowance. Unemployment is measured by the Quarterly National Household Survey and the latest estimated number of persons unemployed as of the second quarter of 2011 was 304,500."