Industry & Business

Labour Force Survey (LFS) data published by the Central Statistics Office show a continued momentum in Ireland’s labour market, with 79,800 jobs created in the year to Q1 2019. There were 2,316,100 people employed in Ireland in the first quarter of 2019, a 3.6 per cent increase on the same quarter of 2018. This consistent growth is reflective of the success of the Government’s annual Action Plans for Jobs, and this momentum is now carried on through the Future Jobs Ireland framework.

Welcoming the figures, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys (pictured) said: “I welcome the latest Labour Force Survey release which shows that, with 221,100 new jobs created since the start of 2016, we have well exceeded our target of 200,000 new jobs by 2020. Furthermore, our regional goal of 135,000 jobs has also been surpassed with 150,000 jobs created outside Dublin as of Q1 2019. On average, over 1,500 new jobs were created every week in Ireland over the last 12 months.

“With consistent improvement in employment for several years now, it is time to turn our attention to answering the future needs of our businesses and workers through our new whole-of-Government plan, Future Jobs Ireland. At a time of strong economic growth and almost full employment, it would be easy to become complacent – something that happened during the boom years. This Government is determined to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. That is why we are preparing now for tomorrow’s world.”

Future Jobs Ireland 2019 is the first in a series of annual reports as part of this new medium-term framework. The commitments in the report will support continued employment growth across Ireland and further reductions in unemployment. Among other issues, it addresses challenges to participation in the labour force. Actions include developing and implementing tailored activation and training supports and generating attractive employment opportunities such as smart working arrangements.