Dramatic fall in number of Kilkenny unemployed as 2,964 sign on

The number of people signing on the live register in Kilkenny has fallen dramatically in the past 12 months reaching lows not seen since the Celtic Tiger era.

The latest live register figures released today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows a 5.82% reduction in the amount of people signing on in Kilkenny compared to December 31, 2018.

On December 31, 2019 just 2,964 people were on the live register in Kilkenny, down 183 on the previous year of 3,145.

The biggest drop in figures were in county Kilkenny where 10.62% less people are signing on the register now compared to last year when 574 people were on the live register as opposed to 513 now.

Kilkenny city only saw a 4.6% reduction in the number of people signing on. The numbers on the register in the city only fell by 120 over the year, from 2571 down to 2451 currently.

For the first time in 13 years, the number of people signing on in Kilkenny fell to less than 3,000 back in September and has remained below that mark since.

Nationally, the number of people signing on the live register in 2019 fell by 18,000, from 203,300 in December 2018 to 185,300 at the end of December 2019, a decrease of 8.85%