Annual Irish Employment Growth Moderates in Q1 2007

The Irish Central Statistic Office (CSO) has reported in its Quarterly National Household Survey Quarter 1 2007 that the number of persons in employment in Ireland grew by 76,800 or 3.8 per cent in the year to 2,074,900 in the first quarter of 2007. This compares to an annual growth rate of 4.3 per cent in the previous quarter and to a rate of 4.7 per cent in the same quarter last year.The number of men in employment in Ireland increased over the year by 38,100 (up 3.3 per cent) while the number of females increased by 38,700 (up 4.6 per cent).When seasonal factors are taken into account the number of persons in employment increased by 16,400 in the quarter compared with an average quarterly adjusted increase of 21,400 in 2006.There were 91,800 persons unemployed in Ireland in the first quarter of 2007, representing an increase of 3,600 over the year. The increase of 3,300 in the numbers of unemployed males accounted for over 90 per cent of the overall annual increase. The number of persons in short-term unemployment increased by 3,800, which was partially offset by a small decrease of 200 in the number of persons in long-term unemployment. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased from 4.1 per cent to 4.4 per cent between the fourth quarter of 2006 and the first quarter of 2007.The total number of persons in the Irish labour force now stands at 2,166,700, an increase of 80,400 or 3.9 per cent over the year. This accounts for 62.9 per cent of all persons aged 15 and over compared with 62.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2006. Female participation rose from 52.2 per cent to 53.2 per cent while that for males increased from 72.5 per cent to 72.8 per cent.Non-Irish national workers are tentatively estimated to have accounted for around 45,000 or almost 60 per cent of the annual increase in the numbers in employment. The number of unemployed foreign nationals increased by 1,200 over the year to 14,900 representing just under one sixth of the total number of unemployed persons in the first quarter.The latest available figures for all EU 25 member states, which are for the fourth quarter of 2006, show that between the fourth quarters of 2005 and 2006 Ireland’s employment level grew by 4.3 per cent and its labour force by 4.0 per cent. The comparable figures for the EU-25 countries were 2.1 per cent and one per cent respectively.