25,400 jobs have been created in in the South-West region of Ireland since 2016 under Fine Gael, the party’s Cork North West General Election candidate, Councillor John Paul O’Shea, has said.
The latest Labour Force Survey published by the Central Statistics Office shows that there are 2,327,000 people at work in Ireland today.
Cllr. O’Shea said: “The new figures show that there are 329,700 people at work in the South-West. This is an 8% increase since 2016 or 25,400 jobs.”
Further Central Statistics Office figures indicate that the Live Register in Cork County for October 2019 has declined by 12.9% on an annual basis and 46% since this government was formed in 2016, according to Cllr. O’Shea.
“The latest data shows that there are more than 53,000 more people at work since this time last year, with 1,000 jobs being created a week.
“There are over 2.3m people a week at work – surpassing the peak of 2007 by 74,700 jobs.
“The unemployment rate has dropped to 4.9%.
“The jobs recovery has been regionally balanced – with over 162,000 new jobs created outside of Dublin since the beginning of 2016. This accounts for over 6 out of every 10 new jobs.
“There is no room for complacency about the progress we have made.
“This is why the Fine Gael-led Government has developed Future Jobs Ireland, a whole-of Government plan to secure Ireland’s economic success.
“That is why we have signed the National Broadband Plan contract. With high speed broadband, we will ensure that 1.1 million people, almost a quarter of our population, will not be left behind. It will now be possible for rural Ireland to take advantage of the opportunities that are presented by the digital economy and it makes remote working possible.
“The strategy is about responding to the changing world of work ensuring that our economy is future-proofed,” Cllr. O’Shea concluded.
