Minister Noonan welcomes increase of 31,600 in the number of people employed

Speaking following the CSO’s release of the Quarterly National Household Survey, Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan stated:

“Today’s figures point to a continuing recovery in the labour market with solid employment growth of 31,600 jobs compared to the same period last year and a further reduction in unemployment. There are now over 1.9 million people at work. This increase is driven by an increase in full time jobs and there is evidence that people are moving from part time to full time work as conditions in the labour market continue to improve.

It is particularly encouraging that the increase in employment was broadly based with employment gains recorded in 10 of the 14 sectors reported by the CSO. The figures highlight the positive impact of the targeted measures in the Tourism and construction sectors for example. The 9% VAT rate in the hospitality sector and the abolition of the Air Travel Tax has contributed to the creation of 8,000 jobs in the Tourism sector over the past year. The introduction of a range of measures in the construction sector such as the Home Renovation Initiative are supporting job creation in the industry with an increase of 3,500 jobs in the sector. In fact, employment in construction is now 10,000 higher than its low point early last year.

We have now had seven consecutive quarters of solid annual employment expansion and we have now seen an increase in employment of over 70,000 since the low-point in mid-2012. We are now seeing that the difficult decisions taken by this government over the past few years are bearing fruit”.