Enterprise stats show East/West imbalance

The West is lagging significantly behind other regions in terms of job creation by Enterprise Ireland-assisted companies, new figures show.

It’s the latest in a series of official State and European reports which shows the massive economic disparity between the regions.

According to Enterprise Ireland’s Annual Report for 2013, a total of 959 jobs were created by their clients in the West region last year. That compares poorly to the likes of Dublin-Mid East (5,471); the South (3,188); the Border (1,338), but is slightly above the totals for the Midlands (820) and Mid-West (756).

But while there were almost 1,000 jobs created by EI-funded companies in the West last year, there were losses of 601.

The means there was a net increase of just 358 jobs, bringing the total for full-time employment to 10,485 – an increase of just over 3.5%. In Dublin-Mid East, there was a net increase of 1,584 (2.5%); in the South, the increase was 696 (1.8%); in the Midlands it was 549 (7.3%); in the Border region it was 306 (1.9%) and in the Mid-West it was 127 (1.2%).

For full-time employment totals for clients of EI, the West is almost bottom of the barrel at 10,485. Only the Midlands has a lower total, at 8,033.

Dublin-Mid East tops the league table at 65,294, followed by the South at 38,646, the Border 16,504 and Mid-West at 10,756.

Enterprise Ireland is the State organisation which helps to develop and grow Irish enterprises into world markets.

“The strong performance of our client companies and their capacity to continuously innovate, develop new products and services and win new export business against the toughest of international competition, represent a tremendous achievement,” said Julie Sinnamon, CEO of Enterprise Ireland.

“This success in the global marketplace has given rise to the highest net jobs creation recorded in the last decade.

“These companies are contributing hugely to the performance of the Irish economy. Driving continuous innovation and export growth leading to job creation right across the country will continue to be the major focus for Enterprise Ireland over the coming years,” said Ms Sinnamon.