Jobless total at 10-year low
The number of people on the Live Register in Westmeath has fallen to its lowest level in 10 years, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office have shown.
At the end of September, the numbers on the Live Register came to 5,342.
The last time the numbers were so low was in May of 2008, when they stood at 4,973.
At their worst, during the summers of 2011 and 2012, the numbers signing on went beyond 11,000.
Drop
The drop between August and September took the number down by 609 from 5,951 to 5,342.
The September figure was also down by more than 1,000 on the figure of 12 months previously, when it stood at 6,424.
The fall in numbers on the Live Register was most significant in the over-25 age group, which saw a decrease of 522 in numbers signing on.
More women (406) came off the Live Register than men (203) between August and September.
That left the total standing at 2,752 men and 2,590 women on the register.
Towns
The figures also show that Athlone has significantly fewer people on the Live Register than Mullingar.
At the end of September, there were 2,734 signing on in Mullingar, 1,988 signing on in Athlone and 620 in Castlepollard.
