The number of people on the Live Register in Clare at the beginning of 2022 has dropped by almost a quarter compared to last year.
The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show there are over 3,900 claiming unemployment benefit in the county, however the figures don’t include those on the pandemic unemployment payment.
While the numbers claiming some form of unemployment benefit have only dropped marginally from last month’s figure, there’s been a 23% decrease in the numbers on the live reg in Clare in the past 12 months.
In January 2021, 4,932 in the county had signed on, however more than a thousand fewer were on the register this year.
Nearly half of all those in receipt of an unemployment payment were based in Ennis, with 1,896 people claiming in this area.
In comparison, East Clare saw the fewest number of claimants – with 517 people registered in this region in January.
East Clare also saw the largest drop in the live reg figures in the past month, with 23 no longer claiming a payment this January.
The numbers in North and West Clare on the register remained relatively stagnant, with only a handful of people signing off last month.
Meanwhile, the number of people in the county in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) in the last week of January reduced by 121 on the week previous with 1,810 people getting the payment into their bank account.
