Employment levels down 8.2% in past year

The number of people working in Ireland has fallen by more than 8% in the last year, according to the latest Quarterly National Household Survey from the CSO.

The number of unemployed people was up 108% to 264,600 in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period last year.

The CSO says almost 1.94 million people were employed in Ireland in the second quarter of this year.

It says the number of male workers was 11.6% lower than in the same period last year, while the number of female workers was down 3.9%.

The largest decrease in employment has been in the construction sector, where job numbers are down by 86,000, or 35%.

Ireland is also seeing a return to net outward emigration levels not seen since 1995. Some 65,000 people left the country from January to April this year, many of them people who migrated here in search of work.

The number of immigrants continued to decline over the same period, from 83,800 to 57,300.

These combined changes mean 7,800 more people left Ireland than moved here in the period.