Employment up 3.9% last year
The number of people in employment in Ireland rose by 72,400 in a year, the highest level of annual growth since 2000, figures showed today.
The annual growth of 3.9% in the first quarter of 2005 brings the number of people in work to 1,908,300, figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed.
There was a slight drop in unemployment of 1,500 over the year, bringing the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate down to 4.2%, compared with 4.4% for the last quarter.
The number of long-term unemployed fell by 2,700 to 27,800, but the short-term unemployed rose by 1,200 to 54,100.
The total number of unemployed in the first quarter stood at 82,100, the figures showed.
The labour force grew by an estimated 49,000 people, with more than half (25,000) of the increase the result of immigration, the CSO said.
More women were working, with an increase of 40,000 more female employees over the year, although 17,600 of those were part-time workers.
The average working week dropped slightly from 37.1 hours in the first quarter of 2004 to 36.9 hours in the first quarter of this year.
The CSO said the decline could be attributed to an increase in the number of people working variable hours and a reduction in the number of people working more than 45 hours a week.
Employment in the construction sector grew by more than 30,800 and there were strong rises in the financial and business services sector, the craft sector and the clerical and secretarial category.
The decline in agriculture, forestry and fishing continued, with a drop of 6,400 in the number of workers in the sector, and hotels and restaurants also saw a decline of 1,000.
The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, welcomed the positive figures.
“The figures show a continuing strong performance in employment terms with over 72,000 extra persons at work compared to the same quarter last year.
“This is equivalent to an annual increase of 3.9%, a rate of increase which is well ahead of the growth rates experienced in other European countries,” he said.
“These very positive figures clearly show that current Government policies are working extremely well and we will continue with the thrust of this successful approach.
“Ireland continues to perform exceptionally well in comparison with our European partners with employment and labour force growth being ahead of the EU average and with one of the lowest rates of unemployment in the EU and being considerably lower than that in the larger European states,” the minister said.
