80,000 new jobs forecast by end of next year

Ibec has predicted the numbers in employment will rise by 80,000 by the end of next year, meaning an increase of 180,000 in the four years to the end of 2016.

The employers’ body said in its latest Quarterly Economic Outlook that it expects the unemployment rate to fall below 9% during 2015 and to just above 8% by the end of 2016. It had reached 15% during 2011.

However, it added: “The labour force will remain below its peak size despite returning net inward migration in the coming years due to falling 1990s birth-rates which were 25% below their 1970s levels. This trend should reverse later in the decade on the back of consistently high birth rates from 2000 onward.”