THE MIDLANDS REGION has seen a 71 per cent decrease in the ratio of employed to unemployed people between 2006 and 2011 according to figures compiled by Teagasc.
The number of unemployed people in the region, which includes Laois, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath rose from 8,566 in 2006 to 27,476 in 2011.
Nationally, there has been a 64 per cent decline in the ratio of employed to unemployed people with less than 5 people working for every person out of work compared to a figure of almost 13 in 2006.
Figures show a huge increase in unemployment in the border region with 49,849 people unemployed in 2011 compared with 18,614 in 2006. At regional level this region also has the lowest number of people in employment relative to the size of the unemployed population with just four people in employment for every one person unemployed.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown area of Dublin shows a high level of employment with almost nine people working for every unemployed person. However this is still a 57 per cent drop from 2006 when this figure was more than 20 – the highest in the country at the time.
Limerick City has the lowest number ratio of employed to unemployed with less than three people in employment for every unemployed person.
In Galway, there was a 65 per cent decline in the employed to unemployed ratio at at less than five in 2001 compared to 14 in 2006. There are now more than 14,000 unemployed people in Galway, an increase of almost 10,000 in the five year period.
These figures, produced by Teagasc are part of a large scale evaluation of employment and unemployment trends in the country in the five year period 2006-2011. The most recent figures for 2012 show that the number of Irish people at work rose for the first time in three years, though the unemployment rate still stood at a high 14.2 per cent at the end of last year.
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