Jobless total tops 3,000 for first time

November 1983

Bray is facing a black Christmas on the unemployment front with figures out this week showing yet another massive jump in the town’s jobless total. And gloomy predictions that the number out of work in Bray would reach 3,000 by the end of the year have been realised by the figures from the Central Statistics Office. These show there are now exactly 3,000 people drawing unemployment assistance in Bray, representing a massive percentage of the local population and confirming the town as one of the worst jobless areas in the country. The total has increased by 64 on that of the previous month, representing a jump of over two per cent in just four weeks. And over the past 12 months, 628 more people have joined the dole queues in Bray, representing an increase in excess of 26 per cent. Taken in the County Wicklow context, Bray’s jobless problem represents more than half the county total of 5,814.