The latest Live Register figures, show a continuing fall in the numbers of people signing on, marking 39 consecutive months of decrease.
Annual decreases in Live Register figures occurred in all eight regions, with the fastest decrease occurring in the Mid-West region.
The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton welcomed the fact that the figures show signs that the positive trends are accelerating.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, 4,300 people left the live register in February. The standardised unemployment rate is at 10.1%, down 0.2% in the month, and down from a high of 15.1% in February 2012, when the Government launched and started implementing the Action Plan for Jobs.
The figures also show that, in gross terms, 141,151 people left the Live Register to take up work during the last 12 months. This means that the exit rate from the Live Register into work is running at 40% – up from 33% in 2012.
Minister Bruton said, “Every job created is a life back on track, a family changed, a community improved. It is job-creation that allows us to increase tax revenues, cut income tax, improve services and ultimately create a better country for people to live in. That is why we have placed job-creation at the very heart of the Government’s agenda.”
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.