Friday, June 19, 2009

An Irish joke?

Anyone for an Irish joke?

Even more dramatically, numbers on the dole represented only 32 per cent of the officially unemployed in New Zealand, compared with 99 per cent in Australia, 69 per cent in Britain and 164 per cent in Ireland.

Say what?

Seriously. According to the NZ Herald, for every 100 people officially unemployed in Ireland, 164 are on the dole.

No it's Friday afternoon. I can't be bothered trying to figure that one out.
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6 comments:

shunt said...

only the Irish. Perhaps they've figured out how to claim their dead mothers' social security :P

6:21 PM
Anonymous said...

I believe what that says is that not everyone on the dole is unemployed and that some people who are employed also qualify for the dole.

7:48 PM
Oswald Bastable said...

AT the risk of being boring and destroying another fine bit of 'Irish Logic'- part-time work probably lets you get the dole, yet you are not classed 'unemployed'

8:40 PM
Lindsay Mitchell said...

Anon, My comment was tongue in cheek.

In Ireland there is unemployment benefit and unemployment assistance, ie a jobseekers benefit and a jobseekers allowance. In NZ unemployment assistance, the latter, might be categorised under a tax credit, an in work payment, accommodation supplement, etc. Therefore this comparison between countries is largely meaningless.

9:59 AM
Anonymous said...

Irish irony.

1:00 PM
Manolo said...

Fir a minute I thought too many Guinnesses had impaired my arithmetic.

1:55 PM

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