The number of people receiving pandemic unemployment payments in Galway has continued to decline for the third week in a row.
There are 25,082 people in Galway who are receiving a pandemic unemployment payment today, down 222 on last week.
The Department of Social Protection is paying €140.34 million in PUP to 468,847 today. This is 4,566 fewer than last week.
Galway remains the county with the third highest level of PUP recipients, behind Dublin (147,241) and Cork (47,535).
But in the past week Galway has seen 450 people close their PUP account with the Department as they were returning to work.
Minister Heather Humphreys said that the continuing declines reflects that economic activity is ongoing in essential industries.
“But it also reflects the ability of employers to find innovative ways to operate within the public health guidelines including through the use of remote working and online service delivery.”
“It is really important that where possible, employees are facilitated in terms of working from home.”
“I want to commend employers for their efforts in facilitating remote working to date and I am encouraging them to maintain these arrangements, where possible, while Level 5 restrictions remain in place.”
Construction is the sector that has seen the largest decrease in the number of people receiving PUP this week, with 1,210 fewer people receiving the payment compared to last week.
The Manufacturing sector has seen the number of PUP recipients decrease from 26,618 last week to 25,862 this week. This is followed by Wholesale and Retail sector, which has seen the number of PUP recipients decrease from 75,196 last week to 74,589 this week.
These figures are in addition to the 188,543 people who were on the Live Register at the end of January.
