Employment Data
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-13
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Sinéad Gibney (SD), Dublin Rathdown

I find it frustrating that when we highlight issues or concerns about rising youth unemployment and long-term unemployment rates, they seem to be batted away with lines like those that the Taoiseach used earlier and that we are hearing now to the effect that we have got so many people in work, that the rate is record breaking and that this is the most important thing. Essentially, the point made is that we should all be grateful that people have jobs at all. Níl sé seo maith go leor. We have seen a distinct rise in youth unemployment that is incredibly out of step with the national average. The Minister of State compared us with Europe, but we need to compare our domestic youth unemployment rate with our general population unemployment rate. When we do so, we see the difficulty. In an uncertain labour market, where quality jobs and secure employment are being eroded, we must not have a Government deciding it is not an issue or focusing instead on the broader picture and not isolating this as the canary in the coalmine we know it to be in labour economics. Fifty thousand young people are without work. We are seeing companies row back on entry-level and graduate recruitment. If we do not act now to ensure a balanced labour market, we will have people on the back foot for their entire lives. How is this specifically being addressed?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-13/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:30+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-13