The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Mary Mitchell O’Connor today (Tuesday) welcomed the latest Quarterly National Household Survey figures from the Central Statistics Office, showing that employment has continued to increase. More than 2 million people are now working in Ireland with 56,500 extra people, a 2.9% increase employed in Ireland in the past year. This puts us on track to surpass the 2016 Action Plan for Jobs target of creating an extra 50,000 jobs this year.

The figures from the CSO today also show that 72% of all jobs created in the past year were created outside Dublin.

Employment has been growing continuously for 16 quarters and over the past year employment has grown in all regions.

The figures also show that the industries sector is the fastest growing sector in the economy while the accommodation and food service sectors and construction sectors remain strong with employment growing in 12 out of 14 economic sectors.

Speaking today, Minister Mary Mitchell O’ Connor said:
“The CSO figures today are very welcome and show that our job growth is recovering. I am particularly encouraged to see figures showing the vast majority of new jobs are being created outside of Dublin as one of my key priorities remains keeping a focus on job growth in all regions around Ireland.

The CSO figures also show that unemployment has decreased by 12.6% during this year bringing the total number of unemployed to 172,500. This is the 16th consecutive quarter for job growth. This must continue, we must rise to the challenge of ensuring that we are protected from international effects. Continuing to develop a sustainable economy remains a key priority and I intend continuing to work towards ensuring the right supports are available to all businesses so that we can maintain the momentum we have recently seen in job growth.”