The number of people claiming unemployment assistance across Galway has dropped by almost 40% since their high nearly six years ago, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office.
Over the past twelve months alone, the number of people officially out of work is down by almost 2,000.
The figures show that at the end of March, there were 15,709 people on the Live Register in Galway City and county – down from the 17,690 (11.2%) for the same month last year.
Month-on-month, there was a decrease of 247 people, which equates to just around 1.5%.
The latest statistics also show that unemployment levels are down around 38% on August 2010, when they hit a high of 25,389.
In Galway City, Live Register figures are down just under 10%, from 8,823 in March 2015 to 7,950 in the same month this year. The month-on-month increase was just under 2% (141 people).
The highest percentage year-on-year drop recorded in unemployment in the county was in Loughrea, down 17.2% (320 people) from 1,857 to 1,537.
The drop in Clifden was 9.9% from 1,056 to 883 and in Tuam was 13% from 2,681 to 2,334.
The figures also show that Ballinasloe was down 8.9% from 2,093 to 1,906, while Gort was down less than 6.9% from 1,180 to 1,099.
For comparison, Cork City was down 12.6% from 14,345 to 12,536 (down 2.3% month-on-month); Dublin County dropped 9.4% from 83,571 to 75,670 (1.1% drop month-on-month); Limerick City was down 8.8% from 10,412 to 9,494 (down 2.2% month-on-month) and Waterford City down 8.4% from 9,551 to 8,745 (down 1.2% month-on-month).
Nationally, the average reduction was 9.5% year-on-year and 1.3% month-on-month – at the moment, there are 315,600 people on the Live Register in the Republic, down from 348,676 at the end of March last year.
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