New CSO figures point to mass emigration of Donegal’s youth

The latest unemployment figures for July show a month on month increase on those signing on the live register in Donegal.
There were 23,223 on the register last month an increase of 307 on the previous month.
Year on year there was a fall of 761 but many people put that down to emigration due to a lack of jobs.
The biggest increase in those signing on last month was in Letterkenny – July’s figure is 6,615, an 3.5% increase on the previous month.
The Inishowen figure now stands at 4,689 – up 130 on June’s figure. 31 extra people signed on in the Finn Valley area bringing the total to 2,860.
Elsewhere there were small increase in Ballyshannon (7), Dunfanaghy (17) and Donegal Town (42).
Falls in those signing on were recorded in Dungloe at 16 and Killybegs at 57.
A stronger indicator of the possible extent of emigration can be obtained by looking at the figures for those under 25.
Last month there were 4,605 people aged 25 or under on the live register, a drop of 10 percent on July 2011 – Ballybofey and Buncrana, both notorious unemployment black spots, saw the biggest DROP in younger people signing on.

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