Hospitality sector employing 5.9% of workers
Ireland has the fifth-highest percentage of people working in the hospitality sector in the EU, it emerged today.
A survey by Eurostat put the country at 5.9% behind more tourist-orientated member states like Cyprus (8.9% of total employment), Malta (8.2%), Spain (6.7%) and Greece (6.5%).
The figures were compiled for the hotels, restaurants and catering sector across the 25-member EU, which employed 7.8 million people in the industry last year.
Hospitality-related employment now accounts for 4% of employment in the bloc.
New EU accession member Poland was bottom of the table with the lowest number of workers in the industry at 1.7%.
More than half of the full-time and part-time workers in the sector in Ireland were aged between 15 and 34.
No breakdown was given for the nationality of the Irish workforce but Eurostat said half was female and over one third was part-time.
