OECD / long-term unemployed
‘Occupy’ protesters approve
INTRODUCTION
The ‘Building Quality Jobs in the Recovery’ international conference looked at: youth unemployment; early childhood supports; long-term exclusion; and the social economy. Each of the four has an impact on the labour market and the health of the local economy and they’re all interlinked. ALLEN MEAGHER REPORTS FROM DUBLIN
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n an ideal world young people should be the target of investment “more than our revered banking institutions” Minister Joan Burton told an OECD/Pobal conference held in Dublin on October 13-14th. “Youth unemployment does lasting damage to the individual and to society” she noted. The Minister for Social Protection announced plans at the conference to launch a new scheme to subsidise the cost to employers of taking on new staff in an attempt to reduce the rate of long-term unemployment. Currently, 46% of young people (15-24 year olds) on the live register are unemployed for more than a year (which defines them as long-term unemployed) and 31% of all young people are unemployed. “Even short spells do damage, particularly to young men,” she said. Reminding people that she was part of a “Government of national recovery”, Minister Burton was the third minister in two days to address the international jobs conference held in Dublin in October. The conference was organised by Pobal, the OECD in cooperation with the Departments of the Environment, Community
Clodagh McDonnell from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government with Gabriel O’Connell of Monaghan Integrated Development at the conference.
and Local Government; Social Protection; Children and Youth Affairs and Pobal. International experts debated the pros and cons of different approaches to tackling longterm unemployment in front of an audience that included national policy-makers and people working at regional and county level to effect change.
Anne Sonnet of the OECD said the short-term outlook for young people was “gloomy” while the conference looked at ways of improving the life-chances of the most marginalised. “Job search assistance programmes are often the best way to help young people,” she said.
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Coincidentally a week earlier, the Occupy Dame Street camp sprung up a few hundred yards from the conference venue in Dublin Castle.
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VOLUNTEER… because a friend pressed you.
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oincidentally a week earlier, the Occupy Dame Street camp sprung up a few hundred yards from the conference venue in Dublin Castle. The people camped out there were unaware of the nearby gathering. One graduate called John almost choked when he learned the OECD were in town and he recounted tales of what he saw as the OECD’s brutal disregard for workers’ rights. John viewed them as “right-wing bullies.” Other Occupy Dame Street campers gave the conference their blessing upon hearing that the unemployed were represented and that trade unionists and community leaders were among those taking part. “I hope they fix it. I’ve really been feeling the pinch in my pockets. I’ve lost three stone in the past two years, I can hardly afford to feed myself,” said one young man who said it was nearly impossible for him to find work because he’d left school early. During the boom years, Seamus (he didn’t give his surname) worked in retail. Alongside him, two more jobless graduates expressed frustration. A music graduate listed off the Occupy Dame Street demands – one for instance being to impose higher taxes on profits from the gas finds off Ireland’s western seaboard. (Unlike the Occupy movement in the USA who first highlighted that wealth was concentrated among 1% of the population, the Dame Street campers had agreed a list of basic demands). Meanwhile, back in Dublin Castle, James Doorley of the National Youth Council of Ireland gave his organisation’s backing to Government schemes such as Tus and Jobbridge remarking: ““Unemployment is our greatest social and