Brain drain threatens to stall recovery

Most people emigrating from Ireland are employed workers or fresh graduates, creating concerns of a skills shortage as the economy begins to recover.

Latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show that just 12,300, or one in six, of the 81,900 people who left the country in the 12 months to April this year was unemployed.

The rest were split mainly between the 28,900 who quit jobs to make a new start abroad and the 29,000 who were students immediately prior to their departure, suggesting they had given up on finding work here before they had even begun.