Clare’s live register has fallen to its lowest level since the beginning of the pandemic.
The CSO says the total number of people here claiming some form of unemployment benefit last month had dropped below 5,000 for the first time since February.
At the end of November, 4926 people were on the live register here, a monthly drop of 250.
That fall was distributed throughout the county – there was a decline of 55 in Ennis, 123 in North Clare, 35 in West Clare and 37 in East Clare.
The countywide figure is still nearly 400 higher than this time last year, however.
In spite of the economic impact of the pandemic, the CSO has continued to compile its live register figures in the traditional way, so these numbers don’t take into account the number of people in Clare availing of the specialised supports at this time, including the pandemic unemployment payment.
At the beginning of last week, that amount to an additional 7,495 people, though this number is expected to have fallen following the re-opening of many businesses over the past week.
Thousands more are seeing their salaries supported via the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme. There is no county-specific data available in relation to that.
