There’s been a jump of over 200 in the space of a month in the number of people claiming unemployment benefit in Clare.
However, the latest CSO figures also reveal that the figures are still well down on this time last year.
According to the latest Live Register figures from the CSO, there are now 4,739 people claiming some form of unemployment benefit in Clare.
This is an increase of around 5% – or just over 200 – on the figure a month previously.
When broken down, it’s North Clare that’s seen the biggest increase in dole queues, with 900 recorded last month, up from 817 in November.
However, this roughly mirrors the increase experienced at the same time last year.
In Ennis, there are now 2,388 on the Live Register, which is around 70 more than the previous month, while West and East Clare saw rises of 23 and 34 respectively in their numbers.
Overall, despite the marginal increase in the figures, Clare is still performing better than this time last year, when over 5,000 people were on the Live Register.
