This article is from page 6 of the 2013-10-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
THE Banner feel-good factor is spreading. Just days after the county hurlers gave everyone in Clare a reason to be cheerful, new results from the CSO have confirmed that the number of unemployed people in the county has reached a five-year low.
The number of people signing on the live register in Clare fell to its lowest level since February of 2009 last month.
In what is being seen as a big step forward for the county, this is the first time in almost five years that the number of people signing on dropped below the 9,000 mark.
September is traditionally a good month for the live register in Clare – with a large number of third level student returning to full time education and coming off the live register.
Between August and September of this year the number of people signing on dropped off dramatically from 9,613 to 8,983 – a drop of 6.5 per cent.
However, this drop is not just a seasonal drop as it also represents a year on year drop of 691 people – representing a drop of 7.1 per cent compared to 2012.
The drop in the number of people signing on was led by Ennis where the live register number dropped from 5, 528 in September of 2012 to 5,094 – a drop of 8 per cent.
While there is no concrete figures for job creation in Clare, it is understood that the tourism sector has had a good season to date, prompted in some way by the reduced VAT rate and the positive effects of the Gathering.
It is understood that the Government are likely to increase the VAT for the hospitality back up from its current two-year low of 9 per cent – a move which could threaten employment in the county’s tourism sector.
This news come hot on the heels of a survey from Hotels.com which reported that room prices in hotels were actually increasing.
These claims were strongly rejected by Lahinch hotelier and and president of the Irish Hotel Federation, Michael Vaughan, who described it as “outrageous” and said that the survey used too few hotel room prices to be accurate.