Chapter 13: Employment and Unemployment

What you'll learn in this chapter

• define key terms: full employment, labour force, participation rate, unemployment rate
• compare how unemployment is measured in Ireland (Live Register vs Labour Force Survey)
• interpret unemployment patterns by age, gender and region using charts/maps
• explain and apply the main types of unemployment (frictional, structural, cyclical, seasonal, institutional, disguised)
• analyse Irish causes of unemployment (recession, exchange-rate shocks, crises, relocation of firms)
• evaluate impacts on (i) the economy (BOP, Exchequer, prices) and (ii) the individual
• explain the link between unemployment and poverty, using CSO evidence

Core ideas

Unemployment isn’t just “people without jobs” — it depends on how we define the labour force (employed + unemployed actively seeking work) and how we measure it. In Ireland, the Live Register can mislead because it tracks welfare claims, not necessarily true unemployment, whereas the Labour Force Survey is the official measure based on a large household survey.

You should be able to describe who unemployment affects most and why. The charts and maps in the notes (age, gender, region) show that unemployment is not evenly distributed, and your job is to connect patterns to explanations such as skills mismatches, location/housing constraints, and the wider business cycle.

Exam focus

• Data questions: describe trends from a chart/map (e.g. youth vs adult unemployment; regional differences) and give reasons for the pattern.
• Definitions + examples: be able to define each unemployment type and give an Irish example (Dell/Pfizer is a classic structural example).
• Short-run vs long-run impacts: link unemployment to the Exchequer (tax receipts + welfare spend) and to prices (short-run demand effects vs longer-run cost/tax pressures).
• Policy evaluation: propose measures to reduce unemployment (training, transport, FDI, wage subsidies, infrastructure) and state at least one limitation/trade-off.
• Poverty link: use CSO SILC-style indicators (risk of poverty, deprivation, consistent poverty) to explain how unemployment can worsen living standards.