WHILE THE pace of employment growth is slowing down, healthy job gains were still recorded in the Irish economy during 2007, according to the Quarterly National Household Survey, published yesterday by the Central Statistics Office.
The total numbers at work reached 2.139 million in the final quarter of 2007, an advance of 66,800 or 3.2 per cent on the level of employment a year earlier.
However, not all sectors shared in the job gains. Employment levels fell in both construction and manufacturing last year. The construction workforce peaked at 284,600 - 13.7 per cent of total employment - in the final quarter of 2006. In the ensuing year, construction employment declined by 5,600 to 279,000, reflecting the weakening of building activity as 2007 progressed.
Employment was also pared back in manufacturing industry during 2007. The numbers working in "other production industries" - broadly manufacturing - fell from 294,900 in the final quarter of 2006 to 290,700 a year later. This decline of 4,200 production jobs reflects the increasing weight of cost and exchange-rate pressures bearing down on Irish industry.
The services sector was the big winner in last year's employment race. More than 1.45 million people were employed in services in the final quarter of 2007, an increase of almost 73,000 or 5.3 per cent on the size of the services' workforce a year earlier.
Separate figures issued by NCB yesterday showed that business activity in the sector declined for the first time in five years last month. The purchasing managers' index measures data derived from questionnaires sent to a panel of about 600 Irish private services companies, excluding retail and wholesale companies, that have agreed to supply regular information on trends in their activity levels.
The fall during February was linked by respondents to reduced new order volumes. The data pointed to a moderate contraction of new business, following a marginal rise in January. Anecdotal evidence indicated that a general deterioration in demand and greater competition led to lower new order volumes, NCB said.
The Quarterly National Household Surveyshowed meanwhile that women filled almost seven out of 10 of the new jobs that came on stream during 2007. By the final quarter of 2007, almost 925,000 women were working in paid employment, an increase of 45,800 or 5.2 per cent on the size of the women's workforce a year earlier.
Women continue to increase their share of total employment. By the final quarter of 2007, women accounted for 43.2 per cent of the national workforce.
The sustained growth in female employment in recent years has been facilitated by the continuing expansion of the services sector and by the growth in part-time employment.
Part-time jobs accounted for more than one-half of total employment growth in the year to the fourth quarter of 2007.
Of the 66,800 jobs added to the national workforce over this period, 36,500 or 55 per cent were part-time jobs. Women filled three out of every four of those additional part-time jobs.
The number of foreign nationals at work in Ireland increased from 286,000 in the fourth quarter of 2006 to 334,700 in the fourth quarter of 2007, a rise of 48,700 or 17 per cent. Thus, foreign nationals filled 73 per cent of the 66,800 jobs created in the Republic over the past year. As a result, foreign nationals now account for close on one in six of all those at work in the Republic.
