THE Dublin region is benefiting less from the current upsurge in industrial employment than any other region of the State, according to a confidential FAS report. The report says that if it had not been for the rapid expansion of the services sector, the Dublin region would have fallen significantly behind other regions in the job creation stakes.
The report comes at a time when the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Bruton, has asked IDA Ireland to implement a new regional policy aimed at attracting more industrial employment to locations outside the main urban centres.
However, the report shows that regionalisation of growth seems to be happening already. While some provincial regions experienced slow growth before 1992 they have caught up in the following years. For instance the mid west region, which comprises Limerick, Clare and Tipperary North Riding, saw employment fall by 2 per cent between 1988 and 1992, but it rose 10 per cent between 1992 and 1996.
The FAS report, entitled Regional trends in the Irish a hour market in the late 1980s and early 1990s, shows significant variations in employment growth across the Republic over the eight year period from 1988 to 1996.
In the services sector, the eastern region (comprising Dublin, Meath, Wicklow and Kildare) achieved the highest growth between 1988 and 1992, at 9.5 per cent. Between 1992 and 1996 the figure rose to 19.4 per cent, second only to the west/midlands region, comprising Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Laois, Offaly, Westmeath and Longford, at 20.7 per cent.
The picture is very different on the industrial front. Between 1988 and 1992, industrial employment rose by only 5.5 per cent in the eastern region, the second lowest figure recorded for any region in the State. The national average was 6.2 per cent.
Between 1992 and 1996 the east scored lowest in terms of industrial employment growth. It experienced an increase of 6.6 per cent, against a national average of 10.2 per cent. The highest growth in industrial employment occurred in the west/midlands region. That region enjoyed 16.8 per cent growth between 1992 and 1996.
Overall, female participation in the workforce rose from 38 per cent to 51 per cent between 1988 and 1996, but the increase in the eastern region was from 43 per cent to 61 per cent.
In contrast there was little growth in female employment in some provincial regions such as the mid west and west/midlands, where industrial employment has expanded significantly.
All areas have enjoyed a significant decrease in unemployment since 1988 except the west/midlands. This region saw unemployment rise by almost 50 per cent in the early 1990s thanks to some large lay offs at companies such as Digital. Despite rapid growth in employment since then, it is still about 1 per cent higher than in 1988.