Ibec expresses concern over disparity in employment growth between Dublin and rest of the country

Unemployment has fallen below 9% for the first time since 2008 — but employers’ body Ibec has expressed concern at the disparity in the pace of employment growth between Dublin and the rest of the country.

The quarterly national household survey from the CSO shows there were 56,000 more people in employment by the end of September than at the start of the year.

There was a increase of 59,400 in the number of people in full-time employment but that was offset by a decrease of 3,400 in the numbers in part-time roles.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation pointed out that the seasonally adjusted total number of people who are unemployed has now fallen below 200,000 for the first time since the end of 2008.

Furthermore the number of people classified as long-term unemployed —out of work for more than a year — has dropped from 204,300 in early 2012 to 109,800 now, a drop of 46%.

Overall, the CSO found that employment had increased in 12 of the 14 economic sectors over the year and fell in the other two.

The largest increase was in construction which saw a rise of 13.3% or 15,000 people since January.

The biggest decline was 3.2% or 3,300 in the numbers employed in financial, insurance and real estate services.

Alan McQuaid, an economist with Merrion Economics, said there had been consecutive gains in employment in the past 11 quarters.

“The Department of Finance is projecting that Ireland will pass the two million people in employment mark in 2016, replace all of the jobs lost during the downturn by 2018 and, in total, between 2015 and 2020, add 200,000 or so new jobs,” he said.

“All things considered, that seems a reasonable assumption at this juncture in our opinion.”

However, while Ibec welcomed evidence of further employment growth, its senior economist Gerard Brady said: “Most parts of the country are now seeing some recovery with employment growing annually in every region bar the West.

“Despite this, the difference in the pace of employment growth between Dublin and the regions has widened significantly in these figures.

“Employment is now growing at 5% annually in Dublin compared to 2% in the rest of the country. This will increase the pressure on housing and infrastructure in the short term and exacerbate regional inequalities over the long-term.”

That concern was echoed by Julie Tennent, an economist with Goodbody Economics, who said: “While employment has been increasing across the country, unemployment remains considerably higher in the regions (8.4%-12.4%) than it does in Dublin and the surrounding areas (8%).

“The Government is currently in the process of announcing a series of action plans to help address these regional imbalances.”