Minster of State for Business, Employment and Retail, Neale Richmond has announced that the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) are now financially supporting more jobs in small businesses across the country than at any time since their inception in 2014.  

There are now 38,726 jobs that are financially supported across the country by the Local Enterprise Offices. 

That is higher than the 38,535 jobs they peaked at in 2019, pre-pandemic.  

New Jobs

Those jobs are within 7,167 companies that have availed of grant aid from their LEO and are in addition to the thousands of other companies they support via training, mentoring and programmes and initiatives such as the Trading Online Voucher and Lean for Business.  

Local Enterprise Office supported companies created 6,640 new jobs in 2023, which saw a 6% increase in employment from 2022. There was a net employment gain of 2,131 for the year.  The figures also show that 82% of new jobs created by LEO client companies were outside of Dublin.  

'Fantastic Small Businesses'

“With 82% of new jobs created outside of Dublin, it is clear that our Local Enterprise Offices are supporting businesses right across Ireland," said Minister Neale Richmond.

"What is also evident is the resilience of Ireland’s fantastic small businesses that have continued to adapt to an ever-changing business environment." 

Source: www.businessworld.ie