Socio-Economic Profile

[Socio-economic profile of County Laois based on 1996 census information and 2002 preliminary data.]

A large proportion of the population of County Laois (around 55%) is engaged in services, 16% of the population is engaged in manufacturing and 20% is involved in argiculture, forestry and related services. A key indicator is that foreign owned firms accounted for only 22% of total manufacturing employment in 1999, just half the proportion of the region as a whole. The socio-economic profile is a typical of a rural based economy. A relatively high proportion of the county's population is involved in farming or argicultral activities. By comparison, the proportion of employer/managers or higher professionals in Laois in low, while the number of people in third level education is also below the national average.

Employment Trends
In January 2003, there were 2,131 people on the Live Register in County Laois, a 15.2% increase on the December 2001 figure of 1,850. This represents an unemployment rate of 3.6% compared with the national average of 4.5%.

Ecouragement can be drawn form the fact that the unemployment rate in County Laois in 2003 is below the national average. However, as mentioned previously, a lot of these jobs are in the farming/agricultural and lower professional sectors. Therefore, more higher professionals and entrepreneurs are required in Laois to  boost the county's employment profile which in turn will be a factor in attracting further investment to the county.