Labour pool grows 5%
The number of people describing themselves as "at work" grew by 93,000 in the year to date to 1,890,600, according to the latest Quarterly National Household Survey by the Central Statistics Office.
This compares to an increase of 57,100 in the year to the third quarter of 2004. Meanwhile, the number of persons describing themselves as "unemployed" rose by 2,100 in the year to 119,800.
The two figures suggest an increase in the size of the labour pool, or people available to work. The survey confirms that the labour force grew by 99,000 or 5% in the year to the third quarter of 2005, to a total of 2,086,500.
The latest available figures for all 25 EU member states, which are for the second quarter of 2005, show that between the second quarters of 2004 and 2005 Ireland’s employment level grew by 5.1% and its labour force by 4.9%. The comparable figures for the EU-15 countries were 1.5% and 1.3% respectively.
The survey says there were 1,989,800 persons in employment in the third quarter of 2005, an increase of 96,200 in the year.
The "strong annual employment growth rate of over 5% has been maintained over the two quarters", according to the survey.
