Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 28 Jan 1997

Vol. 473 No. 6

Written Answers. - Unemployment Levels.

Dermot Ahern

Question:

84 Mr. D. Ahern asked the Taoiseach the live register figures for County Louth for each of the exchanges in each of the months from September 1996 onwards; the percentage of those people on the live register in comparison with those working, those on retirement and other categories of non-working persons; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2050/97]

The Taoiseach

The number of persons on the live register at each local office in County Louth since September 1996 is set out in the following table:

Month (Last Friday)	Ardee	Drogheda	Dundalk	Total County Louth
1996 September	1,258	4,292	4,737	10,287
October	1,202	4,274	4,577	10,053
November	1,166	4,326	4,454	9,946
December	1,195	4,367	4,554	10,116

Definitive statistics on the level of unemployment are based on the labour force survey and it is not possible to relate the above live register figures to appropriate labour force categories, either on a Principal Economic Status (PES) or ILO basis. This is because the labour force survey does not provide results for counties or social welfare office catchment areas; and it is known that persons on the live register are not always classified as unemployed in the labour force survey and therefore, it would not be meaningful to express the live register as a percentage of labour force survey categories.