The jobless figures for Kilkenny are due to be released by the Central Statistics Office this morning (Friday ) and once again it is expected that it will be a bleak outlook for Kilkenny.
With national figures indicating that there will be up to 400,000 people unemployed by the year end and with already 327,900 currently signing on the live register, the future is indeed gloomy for the people of Kilkenny.
The social welfare office in Kilkenny has reported that they are extremely busy dealing with people who are signing on in recent months and queues can be seen by passers-by of people waiting outside the doors waiting to ‘sign on’.
A statement from the Department of Social and Family Affairs to the Kilkenny Advertiser stated that over the past year, the numbers signing on at Kilkenny social welfare local office have increased from almost 2,250 to just over 4,130, an increase of almost 84 per cent.
Processing times for claims is between 2.5 and 5.5 weeks in Kilkenny and the Kilkenny Advertiser was informed that staff is to be increased by three in the local office in order to deal with the demand on the services. These staff members are expected to be in place by mid-February.
Local Fine Gael Senator John Paul Phelan is very concerned at the announcement of recent unemployment figures and the spokesperson on Trade and Employment in the Seanad is also is worried about what today’s figures are going to bring.
“The numbers of people who have lost their jobs in Kilkenny in recent months is simply frightening. The construction industry has seen the main drain of people but the retail sector and the financial sector are also in big trouble and people who were self-employed,” he said.
“We need to see resources being pumped into retraining sooner rather than later.
“Newly unemployed people are being hung out to dry by the Government because social welfare offices still don’t have the staff levels to cope with the worsening unemployment crisis. They are struggling to cope with the thousands of people joining the dole queues every week,” said Senator Phelan.
A spokesperson from the Kilkenny Citizen’s Information Office also told the Kilkenny Advertiser that the service was being inundated with people looking for advice on social welfare and redundancy issues.
