Analysis shows parts of county are still struggling to recover

Some parts of Galway are recovering from the economic crash much more slowly than others.

Because the numbers out of work are still more than double what they were before the crash in four of the six areas into which the county is split for the purposes of Live Register statistics.

Galway West Independent TD Noel Grealish has revealed details of an analysis of Galway unemployment which show that the Gort and Loughrea social welfare districts have been the slowest to recover.

He said that the Clifden area, covering a large part of Connemara, had seen unemployment come back to a level of 38% above the 2006 figures.

And in Galway City, the numbers on the Live Register today are 65% above what they were at the peak of the boom.

But the performance of these two districts contrasted sharply with Gort, where unemployment is at more than two and a quarter times the 2006 level, or 128% more.

Struggling almost as much is the area of the county to the north of that, served by the Loughrea Social Welfare Office, where numbers ‘signing on’ are still 121% over the figures nine years ago.

Next in line is Ballinasloe, at 117% above the figures registered as being out of work before the economic slide sent jobless totals sky-rocketing, closely followed by Tuam at 116% above.

“It all goes to show that while employment levels have generally risen around the county, there is no room for complacency in terms of maintaining current jobs and attracting new investment to the city and county,” said Deputy Grealish.

“While every Social Welfare Office area in the county has seen a considerable drop in the numbers signing on since their peak four or five years ago — by almost a third on average — most are still way above what they were in the so-called good times.

“And we shouldn’t forget either that at least part of the reason why there are fewer people on the Live Register than five years ago is that so many have been forced to emigrate in search of work in Sydney, Toronto, Boston, London and elsewhere around the world.”

In terms of how well the different areas of the county have recovered since their peak unemployment (in most cases in 2010 or 2011), Gort is also worst off.

The south of the county has seen the numbers on the Live Register drop by 23% since they hit a high of 1,536 in August 2012 — well below the comparable national average reduction of one third, or 33%.

Other parts of the county have fared better since their peaks:

• Galway City -42% from high of 13,734 in August 2009;
• Loughrea -42% from August 2010 peak of 2,732;
• Tuam -36% from August 2010 high of 3,691;
• Ballinasloe -33% from peak of 2,759 in August 2010;
• Clifden -32% from high of 1,357 in January 2012.

Galway County as a whole has seen unemployed numbers fall by 36% since its darkest month of August 2010, which those on the Live Register reached 25,389.

Latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the number of people on the Live Register at the end of November in County Galway was 15,714.