Vigilance needed to sustain pace of jobs growth in construction
An Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Frances Fitzgerald and Minister for Rural and Community Development, Michael Ring have welcomed the latest Quarterly National Household Survey figures from the Central Statistics Office, showing that employment continues to increase strongly with 48,000 more people employed in the year to Q2 2017.
An Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation said: “These figures are very encouraging and show that we are on the right path to full employment. My priority as Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation is to ensure that more jobs are created across all regions and that the standard of living is improved for all our citizens.
“As the economy continues to recover, the growth in full-time job growth has remained very strong, with an increase of 77,800 over the last year and a decrease in part-time employment of 29,700. Importantly 79% of those at work are in full-time positions, an increase from 77% in 2015 and 2016. The key now is to continue to drive growth in quality jobs.”
The figures show that there are now 2,063,000 people at work in Ireland.
Employment grew in 11 out of 14 economic sectors – the largest annual increases were recorded in the construction (10,400), healthcare (8,900), education (6,200), ICT (8,100) and accommodation and hospitality (6,200). Employment in Industry increased by 4,100 and in Professional, scientific and technical areas by 4,500, on a seasonally adjusted basis.
An Tánaiste continued: “Today’s figures provide evidence of continual structural change in sectoral employment. Employment growth was broadly based in retail and accommodation, industry and ICT and in construction. We must also ensure that a regional spread of enterprise activity is achieved, within the limits that exist to attracting certain types of businesses to different regions.
“The positive results of the latest CSO employment figures are an important contribution to the overall targets the Government has set out in the Programme for a Partnership Government and Action Plan for Jobs. However, the uncertainty in the external environment and the context of Brexit means that vigilance is needed to sustain the pace of jobs growth and to improve our competitiveness.”
