Rate of unemployment in West falls by 2.5 percent
Galway Bay fm newsroom -The rate of unemployment in the West has dropped by 2.5%.
The figure is contained within the Central Statistic's Office household survey which examines the final quarter of last year.
The CSO data records an unemployment rate for the West of amost 12% for the final quarter of last year.
This compares to a rate of 14.4% at the end of 2012.
Nationally, unemployment decreased by over 14% or just over 41 thousand people in to year to the final quarter of 2013.
The long-term jobless rate also decreased from 8.2 to 7.2%.
The total number of people in the labour force countrywide at the final quarter of 2013 stood at over 2.1 million.
Galway West Fine Gael TD Sean Kyne says the figures are positive for the West and while there is still a distance to go to eliminate unemployment, Ireland now has the fastest jobs growth in the EU and the OECD.