The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME) has today called on the Government to focus its attention on the rising cost of business which is undermining job creation.
The Association drew attention to the slowdown in job creation and the fact that Ireland's economy is described as 'high cost, rising slowly' and consumer prices remain over 20% above the euro area average.
The CSO figures confirm that 181,600 people are still signing on and the standardised unemployment rate is static at 8.3%. With the recent revisions in the figures the total unemployed is the same in August as it was five months ago in April.
ISME CEO, Mark Fielding said, "Jobs growth will be slow as long as costs increase. We have the third highest electricity prices in Europe, our excessive insurance costs are totally unjustified, increasing by 38% over the last year and our bank interest rates continue at more than the Eurozone average."
He added, "Economic uncertainty is increased by trade unions' astronomical wage claims which government, the largest single employer, must defend. Wages are by far the largest percentage of business costs. Ireland's wage profile is out of line with competitor countries and has been growing faster than the EU 28 in the last 2 years."
Source: www.businessworld.ie