Murphy: ‘No amount of massaging will disguise real unemployment figures’
Sinn Féin Economy Spokesperson, Conor Murphy has said that no amount of massaging of figures will disguise the real numbers of unemployed.
Speaking to Newry Times, Murphy said, “The facts are that the number of employee jobs available fell by over 3000 since December 2011, claimants increased by 200 and the percentage of long-term unemployed increased. While it is encouraging that certain areas of manufacturing continue to grow the retail sector and indigenous SME’s continue to experience closures and job losses.”
Murphy added, “The Department of Enterprise Economic Strategy, launched last week aims to promote over 25,000 new jobs and I welcome this initiative. I believe however, that a focus of any investment that accompanies this job promotion should be specifically targeted at the indigenous SME sector in areas of high deprivation and unemployment. While the £16million equity fund for Co-investment Fund is a welcome development, what is required is for pressure to be brought to bear on the Banks to relax their restrictive lending conditions so that SME’s can plan for future investment and expansion with confidence.”
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