MORE than 12,000 extra jobs have been created by the IDA and Forbairt during 1996, bringing the workforce involved in manufacturing and internationally traded services to 225,000.
This is the highest figure recorded in the Republic.
A major contributor to the State's job creation strategy has been the continuing fall in redundancies. This year's figure for jobs lost is expected to be the lowest since 1979.
It is unlikely that job creation figures will be announced officially before January but The Irish Times has learnt that the IDA accounted for 7,300 of the 1996 net increase and Forbairt for 4,800. In 1995 the IDA created 6,500 jobs and Forbairt 2,600.
Despite the high profile closures of traditional manufacturing plants such as Semperit and Packard Electric, economic growth that is three times the EU average has ensured continuing success with job creation. The impact has been particularly noticeable in the indigenous sector.
Before 1995, employment in Irish owned companies was almost static. Since then Forbairt has helped create more than 7,000 jobs and is on course to achieve its target of 12,000 jobs in this sector by 2000.
The IDA's strategy to attract overseas investment has remained effective. The Republic accounted for a third of all investment by US based companies in the EU during the past year.
The increase in employment is all the more striking when contrasted with the situation in other EU states. They are either registering dips or stagnation in full time employment.
Any job creation has been concentrated in part time employment. In Ireland part time employment fell slightly this year. It accounted for 25,000 jobs in 1995 but only 23,000 in 1996.
The Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Bruton, declined to comment on the figures yesterday but said economic growth was "translating very strongly into jobs for the first time in decades".
On future trends, he said: "Given the 80 plus projects announced this year, I'm confident that record employment growth is set to continue into 1997."
As for redundancies, 12,028 people lost their jobs near the end of November. This represents an increase of 11 per cent on the same period last year.
But redundancies reported in most months of 1996 were considerably lower than the monthly totals for 1995.
The November 1996, figure is distorted by the Semperit closure, which accounted for 60 per cent of the total. When the final figures are compiled to include December, it is expected that redundancies reported in 1996 will be fewer than the 13,246 figure for 1995.
If this is the case, 1996 will show the lowest number of redundancies reported since 1979, when 7,560 jobs were lost. In 1980 the redundancy total jumped to 14,664 and it reached 31,290 in 1984.
During the 1980s, employment fell by nearly 80,000. Since 1989 the number of jobs has risen by 200,000 to 1.284 million, the highest in the history of the state.
Foreign owned companies contributed £2.259 billion in wages and salaries to the economy last year, and Irish owned companies £2.076 billion. The total outlay by Irish owned firms in the economy, however, was £10.669 billion, compared to £8.670 billion by foreign owned companies. This is because Irish firms spend far more on items like raw materials, particularly in the food sector.
Irish owned companies spent £1.65 billion on services, compared with £3.5 billion by foreign owned companies. This probably reflects the tendency of foreign owned firms to "outsource" more of their activities, as well as using services where there is a greater" value added element.