Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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In its Census 2016 Summary Results - Part 2, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) published an analysis of Electoral Divisions (EDs) where the unemployment rate in April 2016 was highest relative to the State overall. For this analysis, unemployment blackspots were defined as EDs which contained at least 200 persons in the labour force and which had an unemployment rate of at least 27 per cent, as defined on the basis of the Principal Economic Status question asked in the Census.

The Principal Economic Status question in the Census asked persons how they would describe their present principal status; the response options included the categories “at work” and “unemployed”. This is different from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) classification of unemployment used in the quarterly Labour Force Survey, in which unemployment is measured as persons who, in the week before the survey, were without work and available for work within the next two weeks, and had taken specific steps in the preceding four weeks to find work.

This analysis of unemployment blackspots is only available from the Census of Population; the CSO has no corresponding small-area statistics for more recent periods.

The CSO did not define or publish statistics on youth unemployment blackspots from the 2016 Census.

Therefore, the unemployment rates for the Electoral Divisions listed as unemployment blackspots in the Census 2016 results which are set out in the following table include all those aged 15 years and above.