Small Irish jobless fall keeps unemployment rate at 14.8

DUBLIN: The number of people claiming unemployment benefit in Ireland fell by just 400 in September to a seasonally adjusted 435,200, keeping the standardised unemployment rate at 14.8 percent, the Central Statistics Office said on Wednesday.

While data last month showed that the unemployment rate fell a touch to 14.7 percent in August, that figure was revised up along with the previous two months where the jobless rate is now seen to have hit a crisis-high of 14.9 percent.

Economists polled by Reuters see jobless claims falling to 432,000 by the end of the year, keeping the unemployment rate at 14.8 percent. The unemployment benefit figures include part-time workers, seasonal and casual workers and are not designed to measure the number of people unemployed.