Systems must be put in place to help those who have lost their jobs in Ireland to return to work and not to become reliant on social welfare, a new report has stated.

According to the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), policy changes are required in order to ensure unemployed people have access to support and services in order to prevent people from being out of work long-term.

However, it also points to changes in service delivery in this area in order to facilitate access to further education and training and calls for more temporary jobs schemes to be established.

The publication warns that employment is not likely to increase until 2012, as the challenging economic climate continues to affect hiring.

Positions are still being filled each month in the labor market, the majority of which are "replacement jobs", with skills shortages pushing up demand for staff in some areas.

Ireland's Central Statistics Office recently announced that the joblessness rate stood at 14.3 per cent in July 2011, 0.1 points higher than the previous month.

Posted by Alex Donnell