Republic maintains employment growth

The latest employment figures have revealed an increase of 28,400 or 1.6% in the number of people in employment in the second quarter of the year to May 2003.

This compares with an annual increase of 1.5% in the year to the first quarter of 2003, but is slightly less than in the corresponding quarter of 2002 when growth was 1.9%.

The figures published today in the latest Quarterly National Household Survey results, showed that employment reached 1,778,300. This was mainly attributed to an increase in part-time employment which increased by 12,400 in the year to 302,000 and accounted for over 40% of the annual employment increase. This represents a significantly higher proportion of employment growth than in previous quarters.

Key sectors that had experienced growth had occurred included health, hospitality and construction.

Unemployment was 3.5% lower than in the first quarter, but the year-on-year change showed that unemployment was 4.2% higher. In the second quarter there were 81,400 persons unemployed, an increase of 4,200 in the year and a decrease of 3,500 in the quarter. The unemployment rate was 4.4% in the second quarter. The unemployment rate for males was 4.8% and for females was 3.9%.

The statistics revealed that the labour force grew by 32,700 or 1.8% to 1,859,700 in the year to the second quarter of 2003. This accounted for 59.5% of all persons aged 15 and over and compares to a participation rate of 59.4% one year previously. The male participation rate decreased slightly from 70.4% to 70.3% while the female participation rate increased from 48.8% to 49.1%.

In the year to the second quarter of 2003, employment increased by 12,100 or 2.8% in the Border, Midland and Western region and by 16,500 or 1.3% in the Eastern and Southern region.

Unemployment decreased slightly, down by 900, in the Border, Midland and Western region and increased by 5,100 in the Eastern and Southern region.

(SP)