Irish unemployment hits 14-year high

Ireland's unemployment rate surged to 12.2 per cent last month, the highest level since April 1995, as the eurozone nation was hammered by recession, official data showed.

The country's Central Statistics Office (CSO) said the total 435,735 unemployed at the end of last month was the highest figure since records began in 1967.

The CSO said the unemployment rate jumped from 11.9 per cent in June with 197,495 extra people signing on for benefits in the year to July. The month-on-month rise in the number signing on last month was 17,143. The Live Register is not designed to be a fully accurate measure of unemployment, however, because it includes part-time workers and casual staff entitled to benefits.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen has said projections were that the unemployment rate was expected to be in the region of 15 to 15.5 per cent by the end of the year.

Ireland has been severely battered by the international financial crisis. It entered recession during the first half of last year -the first eurozone nation to do so.