Quality, not quantity, is key for job creation

IN the dark economic days of the 1970s and 1980s, Irish elections could be won or lost based on the health of the labour market.

The latest employment results from the Central Statistics Office show total employment in the Irish economy increased 89,800, or 4.7%, in the 12-month period to the first quarter of 2006. Total employment in the economy has now reached a record level of just under two million.

This is a staggering performance by any standards and certainly marks Ireland out as being fairly unique in an EU context. This labour market performance should, in theory, set a very positive political backdrop for the Government and a pretty uncomfortable one for the opposition parties. However, that is not what the opinion polls suggest.