Sligo has young and educated workforce
Sligo town has some of the youngest and most educated workforce in the Western Region.
That’s according to a new report carried out by the Western Development Commission, which also found that Collooney has more workers than Tubbercurry.
The age profile of those living in the Sligo town was reported as “quite young and the third youngest of the catchments of the seven county towns in the Western Region.”
Those workers living in the catchment and employed in Sligo town have a higher than average rate of third level education - at 59.2 per cent, compared to the State figure of 56.1 per cent.
There are almost 22,000 workers travelling to work in Sligo from the surrounding counties.
The findings emerged after the WDC carried out in-depth research into the commuting patterns of workers in the Western Region.
It found that 8.4 per cent of all workers living in the Western Region are commuting to Sligo.
This is more than three times the number of workers living within Sligo town which highlights the significant labour supply available.
Policy Analyst at the WDC Deirdre Frost said: “This is significant in the context of the recently published Project Ireland 2040, where urban centres such as Sligo will be expected to grow in importance. The forthcom- ing Regional Economic and Spatial Strategies will have to set out plans to support greater growth in urban centres and employment growth is central to this.”
The commuting patterns of those at work in the Western Region were examined by the All-Island Research Observatory (AIRO) at Maynooth University who were commissioned by the WDC.
The study analyses previously unreleased Census data to examine the travel to work patterns in each of the principal towns in the seven counties of the Western Region – including Sligo.
Of those living in Sligo, just over half (11,000) are employed within the town while 10,700 work outside the town and in the rest of the catchment and beyond. Almost 3,300 work in rural Sligo, 550 work in Collooney and just over 500 in Tubbercurry.
The single largest employer is the ‘Education, Human Health and Social Work’ sector and accounts for 30 per cent (6,363) which is higher than the State average (22.8 per cent).
Both the ‘Wholesale, Retail and Commerce’ (25 per cent) or 5,444 and ‘ICT and Professional Services’ at 11 per cent (2,330) are important employment sectors although ‘ICT and Professional Services’ is much lower than the State average (20 per cent).
Manufacturing Industries (14 per cent or 3,032) is the fourth most important sector and higher than the State average of 13 per cent.
Chairperson of the WDC, Dr. Deirdre Garvey said the information will be “of particular value to policy-makers in the context of Project Ireland 2040 and the development of the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies on commuting patterns and enterprise location”.