One in five Ôsigning onÕ in city used to work on buildings

Date Published: 01-Mar-2013

One in every five people unemployed in Galway used to work in construction related industries, an in-depth analysis of Live Register figures for the city reveals.

For the first time, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has released a detailed breakdown of the profile of people signing-on in each of the country’s Social Welfare offices.

Scrutiny of figures from the Galway City office, which includes the wider city area and its hinterland such as including Barna and Moycullen, shows that 2,530 of the 11,270 persons signing on used to be employed directly in the building trade. It shows that the year-on-year numbers signing on has fallen by 510 since January 2012.

The statistics give an interesting insight into the types of people who are out of work since the recession hit.

For example, there are 110 people in Galway City from a cohort of the population whom many people blame for the property crash – bank managers, building society managers and credit controllers – signing on the dole.

It is unclear how many politicians are unemployed in Galway City, as there is no ‘politician’ sub-heading contained in the data, although any former politicians that are on the Live Register could be listed under their previous professions or as public servants, of which there are 40 signing on.

The second biggest cohort of unemployed in Galway City are in what’s known as the ‘personal and protective services’ category, where there are 1,740 ‘signing on’. This broad category includes people working in the security industry, in childcare, and occupations such as traffic wardens and housekeepers.

Some 10 soldiers in Galway City are signing on; and there are 20 fire fighters, Gardaí and prison officers unemployed.

The data shows that the city’s retail sector has taken a heavy hit in terms of jobs lost – 1,260 or 11% of all those signing on, were in retail or sales. There were just over 1,000 ‘professionals’ signing on, including 40 barristers, judges or solicitors and 430 teachers, lecturers and tutors.

There were 650 bar and restaurant staff unemployed, 100 fewer than the same month last year.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.