Unemployment in the Irish Republic hit a 13-year high of 11.9% in June – the highest level since April 1996 – and the number of people claiming for jobless benefits nearly doubled to 418,592 in the past year. Ireland has the second highest unemployment rate in the EU (behind Spain), a sboth countries are experiencing particularly severe downturns due to their heavy dependence on the housing market boom.
This followed the IMF’s grim forecast for the Irish economy just last week of a 13.5% contraction between 2008 and 2010.
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