THERE were 1,263 people signing on the live register at Tulla last month, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office.
Clare has four social welfare offices, with Tulla the only one in the east of the county.
According to the CSO figures there were 703 males signing on at Tulla, with 101 of them aged under 25. There was a very slight decrease in the number of men signing on during July, with the number down from 707 in June.
The number of men on the live register at Tulla is well down on July 2013 when the figure stood at 810.
Also in July of this year there were 560 women on the live register, 59 of them aged under 25.
The number of women was up on the June figure, which was 539. However it was less than the figure for July 2013, which was 619.
The overall figure of 1,263 in July was lower than the equivalent figure for July 2013 which was 1,429, in July of 2012 was 1,501, in the same month of the previous year it was 1,568, in July 2010 it was at 1,536, 12 months earlier it was 1,438, but In July of 2008 the figure was just 728.
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.