DUBLIN: Ireland’s unemployment rate could fall to 5.5 percent by the end of the year, the finance minister said on Thursday, a scenario that could lead to capacity constraints in the fast-growing economy.
Ireland’s jobless rate has fallen to 6.4 percent from a high of 15.1 percent five years ago and the finance ministry forecast in April that the rate would reach 5.8 percent this year and 5.5 percent next year. “We think it is feasible that we will move into 2018 and deliver a scenario of reaching an unemployment rate of 5.5 percent,” Paschal Donohoe told a news conference. “If and when we get to that point, it is possible that we could begin to experience capacity constraints in our labour market and that will be something that government will have to engage in.”