There’s been a near ten percent drop in the number of people on Clare’s Live Register in the past month.
There are now fewer people in this county’s dole queues compared to the same time two years ago.
It comes as the number of people on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment in this county continues to fall.
While the numbers on the Live Register don’t include those on the PUP, there were 432 fewer people signing on in Clare last month compared to March.
The total number now stands at 4,429, which is down five percent on two years ago and a more than 20 percent fall on the same time last year, during the height of the first COVID-19 lockdown.
2,374 people – more than half – continue to sign on in Ennis, with the town seeing a drop of almost a quarter in its Live Register numbers since April 2020.
Indeed, it’s a similar story throughout Clare’s other social welfare offices, with Ennistymon, Tulla and Kilrush’s offices all seeing month on month drops of around 5 percent and percentage drops of double figures since the height of the first wave of Covid.
While the number of people on the PUP here continues to fall slowly, it stood at 9,218 this week – meaning more than 13,600 people are claiming a form of unemployment benefit in Clare – more than 11 percent of the county’s population.
