Galway city jobless figure continues to fall

The number of people signing on the Live Register in Galway City is continuing on a downward trend – with a significant drop of almost 12% recorded over the past twelve months.

The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show that while there was a slight month-on-month increase of 3% (308 people) from April to May this year, there was an overall year-on-year drop of 11.5%.

At the moment, there are 10,083 people ‘signing on’ in the city, compared to 11,395 for May of last year.

For the entire county, there was a year-on-year drop in unemployment of just under 10% – from 22,029 to 19,865, while there was a month-on-month increase of 211 people (just 1%).

A break-down of the figures shows that the majority of those receiving unemployment benefits in the city are males (6,983), while a further 4,412 are females.  Of those in receipt of unemployment benefits in the city, 9,681 are over the age of 25, and 1,714 are under 25.

Galway City reached an unemployment high in August 2009, when the figure hit 13,734, and the lowest figure from the past decade was recorded in November 2004, at 4,627.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Sentinel