This article is from page 2 of the 2014-05-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
THE number of people signing on the live register in Clare fell to it lowest level in more than five years last month, with just 8,739 people signing-on across the county.
Indeed, if the current year-on-year trend remains the same, the number of people signing on in Clare will return to its all time lowest level, as seen at the height of the Celtic Tiger in 2007, in just six years.
The figure for April, which have just been released by the Central Statistic Office (CSO), represent a market decrease both on the figures for March of this year and when compared to April of 2013.
The revival seems to be concentrated on Ennis, with the rate of decrease in the county town outstripping all other areas of the county.
The CSO figures represent a yearon-year decrease of 8.3 per cent, from 9,533 in April of 2013 to 8,739 last month. Should this trend continue, the number of people signing on the live register will drop to levels similar to those recorded at the height of Celtic Tiger by April of 2020.
The current number of people signing on the live register is the lowest monthly figure since January of 2009, when 8,484 people were singing on.
The regional breakdown of these figures indicted that Ennis has been driving the recovery in recent month. Between January of 2009 and last month, Ennis is the only area to record a drop, of just 0.2 per cent.
When these two months are compared on a regional basis, Ennistymon shows an increase of 57 people or 4.2 per cent; Kilrush show an increase of 100 people or 8.5 per cent; and Tulla shows an increase of 110 people, or 9.9 per cent.
While it is still unclear how must of this reduction has been driven by job growth and how much has been driven by emigration and Government back-to-work schemes, it is though that a resurgence in tourism industry in Clare is helping to drive employment.
Figures released by Shannon Airport yesterday reveal a year-on-year 140 per cent increase in passenger numbers flying to Shannon from continental Europe. These figures represent the airports largest year-on-year increase in more than a decade.