The Government, in launching the third instalment of its Action Plan for Jobs 2014, which is designed to have 100,000 more people at work by 2016, was blessed in its timing. It could scarcely have enjoyed a more favourable economic backdrop to the publication of its updated jobs plan. Figures from the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) released last Friday showed strong jobs growth in the fourth quarter of 2013, with employment rising by 3.3 per cent on an annual basis. And the unemployment rate in the final quarter fell to 12.1 per cent, according to the same survey.
With consumer and business confidence already high, following Ireland’s successful exit from the bailout, jobs growth is set to continue this year. And this boost to employment should help to underpin the economic recovery now under way.
For the Government, the challenge is to sustain the advances already made, by introducing further reforms to facilitate and to encourage private sector job creation, as numbers continue to decline in the public sector. The jobs plan, in its latest edition, presents a comprehensive list of measures – 385 in all – for Government and other agencies to implement. And this time as Taoiseach Enda Kenny made clear, the main focus of Government efforts will be on the domestic economy, on improving competitiveness and on supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Above all, competitiveness matters. And there the progress already made can be easily measured by Ireland's ranking in the annual World Competitiveness Yearbook table – where it has risen to 17th place last year from 24 th in 2011. The ultimate aim is for Ireland to achieve a ranking in the top five most competitive countries. It is an ambitious aim.
Nevertheless steady progress towards a much higher ranking is critical: both in continuing to attract the large volume of foreign direct investment (FDI) that is needed to increase employment and reduce unemployment, and to ensuring that indigenous enterprises in the domestic economy can contribute to export-led growth by being able to trade successfully on international markets. In this regard Enterprise Ireland aims to help create 13,000 new fulltime jobs this year, while the IDA has set a target of 6,000 net new jobs from more than 150 new FDI investment projects
As most new jobs comes from start-up companies in their first five years in business, the plan outlines major changes to help encourage and develop native entrepreneurship. These proposals include setting up 31 county-based local enterprise offices to help identify and release that local entrepreneurial spirit.
Whether so many separate agencies are indeed necessary and can be justified is doubtful. However, one cannot fault the Government’s ambition.
