Don’t Worry Be Happy

Total Irish employment rose by 44,100 last year, according to the Quarterly National Household Survey. This is a very good news for people in Ireland as well as for future migrants. More money will be spent on Guinness and umbrellas, then the employers will hire more. The economic circle will be in motion.

This survey is considered as the most accurate indicator of labour market condition. Much better than listening to politicians who claim (when they are in power) that everything is better than in a Arabian sheikhs dreams, or (opposition) worse than in the poorest region of the poorest country after a flood, tornado and bird/swine flu epidemic.

Now, there is about 1.98 million employers in Ireland and this is the highest level recorded since the first quarter of 2009. Unemployment rate dropped to another six-year low of 9.1 percent at the end of last year. It is not as good as the numbers in Germany or Scandinavian countries but still twice as good as in Southern European countries. Also the youth unemployment ranking gives Ireland a place higher than European Union average. At the moment it is about 19 percent.

The survey shows that long-term unemployment has also decreased, from 5.8 percent to 4.7 percent over the year. What do these stats mean to normal people ? Statistics are like the stereotypical blond girls. Everybody love them, but nobody understands them.

Firstly, what’s obvious, more people (Blonds too) have a job. Who doesn’t want one? And than, more employees receive a salary. They spend their new money on new things. As a result, other shops and companies earn more. If their bosses are less stingy than Scots or Poles (from Cracow), they will give the workers a salary raise. Once again more money will be in the economy.

And one day everybody in Ireland will be very rich and have ten Ferraris. But before that, we have to be happy because of these stats and the fact that we are in a better situation than 90 percent of the world’s population.