The biggest drop in unemployment in Galway over the past year has been in the Loughrea social welfare area, where the numbers ‘signing on’ have fallen by one-fifth.
Latest figures continue a trend where the number on the Live Register has now almost halved since the peak of the economic slump in the area, which stretches from Portumna as far as Athenry and Craughwell.
Overall, the total number of people on the Live Register in Galway city and county at the end of September was 14,526, a reduction of almost 11% on September 2015.
But the extent of the continued improvement in the number of people out of work varies considerably in different parts of the county.
In the Clifden area, which covers most of Connemara, the year-on-year drop in the Live Register total last month was just 5%, compared with the 20.6% fall in the Loughrea area.
That big drop means the numbers on the Register in the Loughrea area are down by almost exactly 50% in their peak in August 2010, the biggest improvement in the county.
The latest figures issued by the Central Statistics Office show the following number of people on the Live Register in Galway at the end of September, with the change on the previous year in brackets.
Galway County total: 14,526 (down 1,785 or -10.9%); Galway City: 7,580 (down 749 or -9%); Tuam 2,126 (down 327 or -13.3%); Ballinasloe 1,678 (down 203 or -10.8%); Loughrea 1,368 (down 354 or -20.6%); Gort 1,002 (down 111 or -9.8%); Clifden 772 (down 41 or -5%).
The reduction in Galway City was lower than the fall in Live Register numbers in the country’s other cities — Cork showed a drop of 17%, followed by Limerick (-15.1%), Waterford (-13.4%) and Dublin (-12.9%).
Nationally, the total number of people on the Live Register at the end of September stood at 286,490, a reduction of more than 46,000, or 13.9% on September 2015.