Vol. 468 No. 1
8 Mr. B. Ahern asked the Taoiseach the plans, if any, there are to collect or collate employment statistics for areas corresponding to each employment exchange and for which live register statistics are abolished; and his views on the feasibility of such an undertaking. [14134/96]
The most detailed area breakdown of employment and unemployment statistics comes from the five-yearly census of population. The small area population statistics provide information for counties and towns, and for some 3,500 wards and district electoral divisions. The relevant small-area statistics from the 1996 census should be available by the end of 1997.
Annual information on employment and unemployment is available from the labour force survey at regional authority level. The sample size of 45,000 households is not sufficient to produce reliable results for smaller areas (such as counties or towns). In particular, it would be prohibitively expensive to produce employment statistics in respect of the 127 local offices for which monthly live register statistics are available.
