Dole figures have dropped by 2,500 over the past year

The number of people claiming unemployment assistance across Galway has dropped by almost 12% over the past year, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office.

The figures show that at the end of August , there were 18,151 people on the Live Register in Galway City and county – down from the 20,582 (11.8%) for the same month last year.

Month-on-month, there was a decrease of 195 people, which equates to just over one percent.

The latest statistics also show that unemployment levels are down around 28% on August 2010, when they hit a high of 25,389.

In Galway City, Live Register figures are down almost 11%, from 10,525 in August 2014 to 9,398 in the same month this year. The month-on-month increase was just under 12% (92 people).

The highest percentage year-on-year drop recorded in unemployment in the county was in Gort, down 17.4% (244 people) from 1,403 to 1,159. The drop in Loughrea was 13.5% from 2,218 to 1,920 and in Tuam was 13.1% from 3,113 to 2,752.

The figures also show that Ballinasloe was down 12.2% from 2,343 to 2,076, while Clifden was down less than 7% from 980 to 911.

For comparison, Dublin County dropped just under 11% from 97,551 to 86,852 (1% drop month-on-month); Limerick City was down 11.4% from 12,812 to 11,357 (1.6% drop month-on-month); Cork City was down 9.7% from 16,521 to 14,875 (1.6% month-on-month) and Waterford City down 9.9% from 11,011 to 9,921 (down 1.6% month-on-month).

Nationally, the average reduction was 9.85% year-on-year and 1.25% month-on-month – at the moment, there are 359,076 people on the Live Register in the Republic.