MINISTER KITT WELCOMES LATEST EMPLOYMENT FIGURES
NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN EMPLOYMENT NOW AT HISTORIC HIGH LEVELS
Commenting today at the CSO Quarterly National Household Survey release for the third Quarter 2006, the Government Chief Whip and Minister of State, Mr. Tom Kitt, T.D., said: “I welcome today’s figures, which show that the number of people in employment grew by over 83,000 or 4.2% in the year to reach 2,073,300. The numbers of people in employment have once again increased and are now at historic high levels.”
Minister Kitt continued: “In particular I welcome the increase of over 38,000 or 4.5% in the number of women at work. The female employment rate at 60.3% has exceeded Ireland’s target under the Lisbon Reform Programme for the first time.”
Minister Kitt also drew attention to the strength of our labour market performance in an EU context: “The latest available figures for all 25 EU member states show that between the second quarters of 2005 and 2006 Ireland’s employment level and labour force grew by 4.6%. The comparable figures for the EU25 were 2.0% and 1.2% respectively”.
ENDS
30th November 2006