Workforce of new EU states at 130,000

OVER three quarters of Irish companies surveyed have hired nationals of the new EU states since the accession in May last year.

The survey of 160 by jobsearch.ie followed up on recent figures which said up to 130,000 accession country migrants have now joined the Irish labour force.

The 122 companies who hired staff from the new EU countries have a combined workforce of 11,281 and the total amount of ‘accession country nationals hired by these companies since that time is 1,851, representing 16.4% of their total current work force.