There’s been a drop of over 18% in the number of people on the live register in Clare in the past year.
The latest figures released by the CSO show that just over 4,800 people were signing on here at the end of last month – a drop of around 900 since November of the previous year.
At the end of November, there were 4,814 people on the live register in Clare, a rise of 107 from the 4,707 a month previous.
But despite the marginal rise, it’s a significant improvement on the figures seen a year ago.
This time last year, 5,704 people were signing on in Clare, meaning the latest figure marks a year-on-year drop of over 18 percent.
In the past month alone, Ennis and East Clare have both seen slight drops.
The November figure for the county town is 2,473 – that’s a drop of 29 on the October one – while in East Clare, there was a reduction of nine in live register figures.
The other areas of West and North Clare, meanwhile, have seen their numbers rise.
In North Clare, figures rose by around 100 to 894 in the past month – that’s a 12% increase – while West Clare’s total rose from 768 to 816, a jump of 48.
This time of year traditionally sees a rise in figures but the increase this year is much lower than has been experienced in recent years.
