ACCORDING to new Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures, the Live Register in County Limerick has declined by 17 per cent on an annual basis and 64 per cent since Fine Gael entered government in 2011.
The Newcastle West social welfare district has seen a 73 per cent reduction and the Kilmallock social welfare district has seen a 68 per cent reduction in the Live Register since 2011.
Fine Gael TD Tom Neville, who is vice chairperson of the Business Enterprise and Innovation Joint Oireachtas Committee, deemed this “excellent news” for the people of County Limerick.
“Nationally, the Live Register total recorded a monthly decrease of 3,500 in May 2019, bringing the seasonally adjusted total to 190,900. The number of people on the Live Register in May 2019 is the lowest number recorded in the seasonally adjusted series since February 2008,” Deputy Neville pointed out.
Earlier this week, the monthly unemployment rate for May 2019 fell to 4.4 per cent, the lowest rate since 2005. This is down from 4.6 per cent in April 2019 and down from 5.9 per cent in May 2018.
The number of people unemployed was 108,200 in May 2019, down from 111,300 when compared to the April 2019 figure and a decrease of 33,200 when compared to May 2018.
“This is further positive news following on from the publication of the Labour Force Survey, Ireland’s key source of employment data, last month which indicated that over 2.3 million people were employed in Ireland in the first quarter of 2019, a 3.6 per cent increase on the same quarter of 2018.
“This consistent growth is reflective of the success of the Government’s annual Action Plans for Jobs, and this momentum is now carried on through the Future Jobs Ireland framework. Some 221,100 new jobs have been created since the start of 2016; we have well exceeded our target of 200,000 new jobs by 2020. Furthermore, our regional goal of 135,000 jobs has also been surpassed with 150,000 jobs created outside Dublin as of Q1 2019,” he concluded.
