Surge of 13% in workers living and employed in the west
A new report carried out by the Western Development Commission (WDC) examining travel to work patterns and labour catchments in the Western Region finds the number of people living and working in the Western Region has increased by 13.3% between 2016 and 2022.
This is based on a subset of Census 2022 data examining where people live and work and forms the basis of the labour catchments.
The town labour catchment is that area from which a town draws most of its workforce, making it a very useful measure of labour supply.
All the labour catchments reviewed in this report have significantly more people at work than the census population at work within the town. This shows that all these towns have access to a much greater labour supply than the town population.
Deirdre Frost, policy analyst, said: “This information, along with the labour market profiles of those described throughout this report, will help inform the development agencies, employers and local authorities on employment and enterprise across the western region.”
The top five largest catchments in the west are all county towns – Galway, Sligo, Letterkenny, Ennis and Castlebar. The county towns of Roscommon (Roscommon town) and Leitrim (Carrick-on-Shannon) also make the top 10 (in eighth and 10th place respectively), as do the Mayo towns of Ballina (seventh largest) and Westport (ninth largest) along with Limerick city (sixth largest).
Castlebar, with nearly 17,000 resident workers in 2022, has retained fifth position throughout the period 2006-2022. It recorded one of the largest growth rates of all catchments, growing by 22% since 2016.
In addition, as highlighted in previous iterations of the report, Ballina and Westport are recognised as playing 'a significant part' in the spatial distribution of labour catchments within their respective regional areas. Along with Limerick city, all three account for 9.3% of the total resident workers in the western region.
The report outlines that the relative proximity of some of the selected towns plays a role in determining the spatial extent of a labour catchment. For example, the Mayo towns of Castlebar, Westport and Ballina are relatively close to each other and so limit the geographic extent of their respective labour catchments.
In contrast to this, Ennis and Kilrush are further apart and as such Ennis has a far more extensive catchment. Therefore, the closer a town is to another, the less extensive its labour catchment will be, as one town’s labour catchment will provide the boundary for the other.
The report also highlights the importance of rural areas as employment locations. A large proportion of the labour catchment residents are in fact employed in rural areas (centres with less than 1,000 people – destinations outside any defined CSO settlement). These rural locations are the second most popular workplace destination for even the larger, more urban labour catchments.
Commenting on the findings, CEO of the WDC, Allan Mulrooney, said: “This is very valuable information as it provides robust analysis of travel to work patterns in centres across the western region. It provides detailed data which will inform decisions on commuting and employment patterns and enterprise location.
“Comparing these data with the original WDC analysis in the intercensal periods, 2016 and 2006, provides insights into trends. It will be of particular value to policy-makers in the context of the revision of the National Planning Framework and the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies and County Development.”