Jobs surge as economy gets back on track

THE economy is back on a buoyant track with 1,000 jobs being created a week and up to 28 major IDA job investments expected later this year.

Signs that the economy is staging a strong recovery were confirmed with news that employment grew by almost 3% over the past year, while the annual number of jobless fell for the first time since mid-2001.

IDA chief executive Sean Dorgan said things are going to get much better. Yesterday, he revealed that just 14 of 42 significant job creation investments approved by the IDA this year have been announced.

The other 28 projects are not being announced because of political sensitivities in the United States. Mr Dorgan said many US companies do not want to announce overseas investments in the current pre-presidential election climate. He hopes many of these companies will commit to invest in Ireland later this year.

Speaking at the launch of the IDA's 2003 annual report, Mr Dorgan said the slowdown of the past three years was, for the most part, over.

"We have every reason to be optimistic for the economy right now as we see substantial progress being made in securing the newer types of inward investment projects Ireland now requires," he said.

The IDA also confirmed that up to 40% of the new jobs negotiated so far this year are above the €37,000 per annum salary benchmark that they consider defines high-skilled employment.

Taken with the latest quarterly National Household Survey published yesterday, the signs all point to a strong economic recovery.

An extra 52,300 people were at work in the first quarter of 2004 compared to the same period last year. The survey recorded a total of 1,835,900 employed at the beginning of March 2004, an annual increase of 2.9%.

There was a corresponding decline in the number of jobless 83,600, down 0.2%, and the first decline in the annual unemployment rate in almost three years.

The survey showed major job creation came in:

The construction industry with 13,500 new jobs;

The wholesale and retail trade, up 10,100;

Financial services, up 8,300.

Health, up 9,800 despite supposed cutbacks in public sector recruitment.

While employment grew across most sectors, there was a decline of 8,400 in the numbers employed in manufacturing.