26th August 2015
• Every Region sees Jobs Growth and Fall in Unemployment in last Year
• 125,000 Jobs Added since Action Plan for Jobs First Launched
• Unemployment rate for July now down to 9.5%
The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD today (Wednesday) welcomed the latest official employment figures from the Central Statistics Office, showing that the jobs recovery is growing stronger with more than 1,300 new jobs added each week since the start of 2015 and that every region in the country has seen jobs growth and unemployment falls over the last year.
Minister Bruton also noted that 125,000 extra jobs have been created since the start of 2012 when the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs was launched and that has helped drive down the unemployment rate from a high of 15.1% to 9.5% in July and has helped further slow the numbers of Irish nationals emigrating.
The figures published today also show:
- 57,100 extra jobs were created in the past 12 months
- 19,000 extra jobs were created in Q2 alone, up from 15,200 in Q1 and 11,600 in Q4 2014.
- Following the recent trend, full-time employment has increased by 56,800 over the past year
- 11 of 14 economic sectors are showing jobs growth over the past year, with particularly strong quarterly results in professional, scientific and technical (+5,700), construction (+3,300) and industry (+1,800) and agriculture, forestry and fishing (+2,700)
- Numbers self-employed are up 11,800 over the year, or 3.7% - faster than the rate of employment growth generally of 3%
- Long-term unemployment rate has fallen from 6.8% to 5.5% over the year
Speaking today following the publication of the CSO results, Minister Bruton said:
“In the last three months another 19,000 lives have been put back on track as people found work. Since we started the Action Plan for Jobs 125,000 lives have been helped back on track. Each one of those lives back on track means a family improved and a community enhanced. It is also job-creation that allows us to grow tax revenues and ultimately improve services and cut taxes, and that is why we have made employment our very top priority.
“We are clearly moving in the right direction, but any momentum gained can be easily lost by a change of focus or a change in policy. Carefully and very deliberately we have rebuilt our economy based on growing exports, encouraging and supporting enterprise and trying to reward work at all times. We have the policy mix right and, if we keep that course, we can secure the recovery so that all can participate in the benefits of that recovery. More jobs will allow us reduce tax burdens which will encourage enterprise which will then allow us invest more in vital services.
“But if we don’t keep our focus on jobs then none of those things are possible. That is why my determination, and the government’s determination is to secure full employment by 2018 and to get all those who want to work in to a job. The opportunity is there now, but the recovery is still fragile and can be wasted by the wrong policies and the wrong focus on what is the number one priority – jobs.
ENDS
For further information:
Press Office, Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation 01- 6312200 or press.office@djei.ie
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