The consensus among economic commentators seems to be that Ireland’s recession will technically be over some time around the middle of this year, but it won’t seem like this to the thousands of people who continue to lose their jobs every week.

Unemployment figures may show that the rate of job losses has slowed, but the Central Bank Quarterly Bulletin, published today, confirms that this is only because so many people are either emigrating or have given up looking for a job altogether.

Even with rocketing emigration and declining labour market participation, the Central Bank still expects unemployment to spike to an average of 13.5% in 2010, one of the highest rates in the developed world.

Up to 100,000 people are expected to emigrate this year in search of a job. Many of these are highly educated young people who see no future for themselves here with job creation likely to stagnate for years to come.

The government has failed in its duty to tackle the growing jobs crisis, and the massive ‘brain drain’ that results could undermine competitiveness for years to come.

With more than 420,000 on the Live Register, including 84,000 under 25 years of age, unemployment must be made public enemy number 1. The Government must step up to the plate.

Apart from the huge economic cost of unemployment through loss of tax revenue and additional social welfare payments, there are also potentially huge social consequences.

We know the damage done to families and communities by long term unemployment during the 1980s and if we want to avoid a repeat of this phenomenon urgent action is now required, along the lines of the special €1.5bn jobs fund suggested by Labour in our pre-budget submission.