Employment: The surge in job numbers this year which followed economic recovery is set to continue into 2005, according to two reports published yesterday.
Both the FÁS labour market review for 2004 and a new employment outlook survey by Manpower predict continued jobs growth in nearly all sectors of the economy.
FÁS, however, says a range of initiatives are needed if labour shortages are to be avoided and the potential for both employment and economic growth maximised.
It repeated its call for a "green card" system as part of a "coherent immigration policy" which, it said, the State needs to develop.
It also called for the removal of measures, such as the withdrawal of their medical cards, which currently discourage people on social welfare from taking jobs.
The agency also called for the apprenticeship system to be extended to a wider range of occupations and for more resources to be devoted to on-the-job training.
Such measures would help maintain a strong labour market performance which is set, by the end of the year, to have resulted in the creation of 44,000 extra jobs in 2004.
This rate of employment growth, at 2.4 per cent, is likely to moderate to about 1.7 per cent, or 32,000 additional jobs, next year.
The main sources of growth have been the labour-intensive construction and services sectors, while even manufacturing employment has been expanding after a few difficult years.
The market services sector now employs close to 830,000, the FÁS review says, and accounts for almost 45 per cent of total employment.
This is nearly six times the number employed in the multinational industrial sector, but "there is significant room for further employment growth in the services sector".
There has been a "noticeable rise" in labour market participation by older persons, especially by women aged over 45, the review adds. "By contrast, participation rates among younger persons have been falling, reflecting rising participation rates in education."
The review also points to the increasing importance of immigration for labour force growth. Its principal author, FÁS economist Mr Brian McCormick, pointed out yesterday that 50,000 people from the 10 new EU states had come to the Republic to work since the Union expanded on May 1st.
The review calls for a skills-based immigration strategy to be developed that would attract a sufficient number of professionals and appropriately-skilled workers "to eliminate infrastructural bottlenecks".
A separate quarterly study published yesterday by recruitment specialists Manpower also suggests employment growth will continue to be strong in 2005.
Of 562 Irish employers interviewed for the international survey, 19 per cent said they expected to hire more people, compared with 4 per cent who expected to cut their workforce.
Meanwhile, Udárás na Gaeltachta said there had been a net gain of 161 jobs in Udárás companies in the last year where 7,507 are now employed.
