Population the highest since 1861

A MINI baby boom and an ongoing influx of immigrants has pushed the population to its highest in nearly 150 years, figures show.

Ireland now has the fastest growing population in Europe with 70,000 people immigrating in the last year alone, according to the Central Statistic Office (CSO). Some 16,600 emigrants left, the lowest since records began in 1987.

The natural increase in population births minus deaths was 33,500 for the 12 months to April 2005, more than double the level seen in 1994.

The combined effect of the natural increase and migration was a population increase of 2.2%, or 87,000, meaning a total of 4.13 million in April 2005, the highest since 1861. That year's census recorded a population of 4.4 million.

More than one-third of immigrants, 38%, were from the 10 EU accession states, which joined on May 1, 2004. Some 17% of immigrants were Polish while 9% came from Lithuania.

Separate statistics showed the Irish labour force has exceeded two million for the first time in the history of the state. The CSO's quarterly national household survey for the year to the end of May showed the labour force grew by 94,500 an increase of 4.9%.

Unemployment rose slightly in the second quarter to 85,600. The

seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was up from 4.2% in the first quarter to 4.3%. The labour force now accounts for 61.5% of all persons aged 15 and over, compared to 53.6% in 1995. In the past year the female participation rate rose from 49.4% to 51.4% and is almost 12 percentage points higher than the 39.7% recorded in 1995. The number of women in employment increased over the year by 48,000 (6.2%), of which almost 15,000 were accounted for by an increase in part-time workers.

Meanwhile a separate FÁS/ESRI study of employment and vacancies for July found overall employment in the private sector is expected to rise over the coming months. The percentage of private sector firms reporting vacancies continued to increase, with 19% across all sectors reporting vacancies. The survey also found the percentage of service sector firms with vacancies increased by 8% to 25%, its highest level in over a year.

Employers in the industrial sector believe employment will remain static while employers in the retail sector believe it will fall over the coming months, and construction sector and service sector firms remain optimistic about future employment levels. The most frequently difficult vacancies to fill were: in construction quantity surveyors; in industry sales representatives and managers; in retail managers; in services receptionists, bar staff, waitresses.

CSO figures show one third of the new migrants found employment in construction while increases were also recorded in other production industries, wholesale & retail, financial and other business services and hotels and restaurants.