Unemployment figures continue to fall

The number of people on the Live Register across Galway is continuing to fall, with 11% fewer on the ‘dole’ since a year ago.

And unemployment figures have dropped by almost 30% since their peak more than four years ago.

According to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office, there were 18,152 on the Live Register in the city and county in January of this year.

That’s down 11% from 20,390 exactly one year earlier. However, there was a month-on-month increase of 18 people (0.1%).

The figures also show Galway is performing better than the State averages, which saw a 10.2% drop over the year, and a 0.7% increase year-on-year.

The biggest drops recorded in unemployment were in Loughrea and Gort at 14% and 11.6% respectively. In Loughrea, there were 311 fewer on the live Register and in Gort, the drop was a drop of 165 people.

In the city, the CSO figures show there were 9,002 on the Register in January – down 10.7% from the 10,076 one year earlier. Like the county, there was a month-on-month increase recorded, of 1.1% (97 people).

In Ballinasloe last month, there were 2,126 on the Register, down 11.1% from 2,391 a year previously; in Tuam there were 2,730, down 10.6% from 3,055 one year earlier and Clifden saw a decrease of 8.1% from 1,214 to 1,116.

A break-down of the figures shows that the majority (59.5%) of those receiving unemployment benefits in Galway were male (10,909), while 7,343 were female.  Of those in receipt of benefits here, 87.2% (15,822) were over the age of 25, and the remainder (2,330) under 25.

For comparison, the number of people on the Register in Dublin was 85,232 (down 10.7%); Cork City was down 11.9% to 14,325; Limerick City was down 12.7% to 10,841 and Waterford City was down 13.8% to 9,695.