Unemployment rate dropped by 15 per cent in past year
RecruitAuto.ie, Ireland’s recruitment website for the wider auto industry welcomed the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office which show that 3,300 new jobs were created per month in 2014, with unemployment falling by more than 15% over the course of the year.
The number of people in work has increased by 95,000 since the depths of the crisis, with an increase in full-time employment of 39,600 (but part-time employment has shrunk by approximately 10,500) last year alone, according to the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS).
Total employment now stands at 1,938,900 – the highest level in five years. Unemployment now stands at 10.4%, down from a crisis peak of 15.1%.
The figures demonstrate that the economic recovery continues to strengthen with employers hiring more people on a full-time basis as business confidence improves.
Speaking at the announcement, the Tánaiste Joan Burton TD said: “These figures demonstrate the continuing success of the Government’s twin-track approach to creating jobs and helping people return to work. The Action Plan for Jobs, overseen the Department of Jobs, is helping to accelerate the transition to a sustainable, jobs-rich economy.
Pathways to Work, overseen by my Department, is ensuring that as many as possible of those newly created jobs go to people on the Live Register. While unemployment remains too high and we still have much work to do, I am particularly encouraged by the fact that the vast majority of people returning to work are returning to full-time jobs, and that long-term unemployment has fallen to 5.7%.”
Minister for Business and Employment, Ger Nash added, “The QNHS shows that full-time employment is continuing to grow – up 2.7% in the past year; while part-time employment is down 2.3%. This shows that the Government’s focus on creating decent, sustainable jobs is working.
Looking at the sectors where we are seeing most gains, construction has seen a very welcome growth of 12.6% in employment in one year. Financial and insurance services are up 4.9%, while the retail sector, which I have responsibility for, has also seen modest growth of 2.3%.”
90,000 additional people at work
The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD also welcomed the official employment figures from the CSO, showing that almost 90,000 additional people are at work today in Ireland compared to early 2012 when the Government launched and started implementing the first Action Plan for Jobs. At that time the Government set a target of creating 100,000 additional jobs by end 2016.
Employment has grown and unemployment has shrunk in all 8 regions of the country since the Action Plan for Jobs process started – although as Minister Bruton has repeatedly stated some regions are performing better than others. For example, employment has grown by 12.2% in the South East and by 8.5% in the Midlands over that period
However, the early phases of the employment recovery was mainly in the exporting sectors, but growth is now balanced across the economy, with strong performances in domestic economy sectors such as construction, retail, tourism and domestic financial services
RecruitAuto.ie welcomes the fact that the unadjusted unemployment rate at 9.9 per cent is below 10pc for the first time since the crisis. And very important, the long-term unemployment rate continued to decline, representing 57.8% of (shrinking) total unemployment, compared to 61.4% a year ago. Critically, this needs to continue and at a faster rate over the next couple of years.