Galway long-term jobless total hits an all-time high

The number of long-term unemployed in Galway has hit its highest level ever, new figures show.

 The Department of Social Protection has confirmed that the number of people long-term unemployed who are signing on the Live Register in Galway has surpassed the 10,000 mark for the first time during the current economic slump. And the numbers ‘signing on’ for three years or more has increased by over a third in just a year and a half.

Long-term unemployment is defined as being out of work for over 12 months – by June 2013 there were 10,343 such persons ‘signing on’ in Galway.

That’s a jump of around 7.5% on the long-term unemployed numbers at the end of December 2012 when the figure stood at 9,625. The previous year, in December 2011, there were 9,575 long-term unemployed.

The department has confirmed that the numbers ‘signing on’ in Galway, including the city and county, stood at 22,602 in June of this year.

That means that a total of 46% of all people on the Live Register in Galway are classified as long-term unemployed.

During the ‘Boom’ years the long-term unemployed figures stood at one or two percent of the total unemployed.

According to statistics and economists, people who are unemployed for longer and are in the long-term unemployed category are far less likely to return to the workforce as they become ‘de-skilled’.

Being unemployed in the long term also impacts on individuals’ health including mental health.

The most worrying aspect of the statistics is the numbers in Galway who are unemployed for more than three years.

In Galway there are 5,461 individuals who are unemployed for three years or more – that’s a whopping 24% of the total number of people ‘signing on’ in Galway.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel