This article is from page 10 of the 2014-03-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
THE vast majority of people signing on the live register in Ennis are young people – under the age of 25.
A whopping 85 per cent of the of the people signing on the the live register in Ennis last month was aged 25 or under. A total of 5,085 people signed on the live register in the county town in February – of these only 751 were over the age of 25.
The percent of younger people on the live register in Ennis has increased since the start of the recession in 2007 – but not dramatically. Of the 2,459 who signed on in Ennis in February 2007, 2,011 or 81.7 per cent of the total were under the age of 25.
Gender also appears to be a factor in unemployment in Ennis since the start of the recession, with more men winding up on the live register than women.
Between February of 2007 and February of 2014, the number of men signing on the live register in Ennis increased from 1,351 to 3,051 an increase of 125 per cent. Over the same time period however, the number of women on the register increased from 1,108 to 2,034 – representing an increase of just 83.5 per cent
Overall however, it does appear the the unemployment problems in Ennis are improving – but the improvement is slow. A comparison of the live register figures for Ennis in each February since 2007 reveals that the register hit its peak in 2010, when 6,165 were on the live register.
These figures have dropped each February since and now stand at 5,085, which is still more than double the 2007 figures of 2,459.