A sharp rise in the number of part-time workers was not enough to stem declining growth in the jobs market in the third quarter of 2007, as the slowdown in the construction sector took its toll on employment. Laura Slatteryreports.

For the first time since mid-2003, the increase in the number of part-time jobs accounted for more than half of total employment growth, which rose at an annual rate of 3.3 per cent. This was down from an annual rate of 3.9 per cent in the previous quarter.

Ulster Bank economist Pat McArdle said the unusually high proportion of part-time jobs indicated that employers were becoming more cautious about taking on full-time staff.

There were 68,000 more people employed in the June-August period than in the same quarter in 2006, according to the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) published yesterday by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). This brings the size of the workforce to 2.14 million.

Immigration continues to be the major factor driving the labour market, with 48,400, or 72 per cent, of the annual increase in employment numbers accounted for by non-Irish nationals, according to tentative estimates from the CSO.

The majority of these non-Irish nationals came from the newest EU member states.

A slowdown in growth in the size of the labour force helped the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fall to 4.4 per cent, down from 4.5 per cent in the second quarter.

Some 36,800 part-time jobs were created, an increase of 10.6 per cent on the same period last year.

Women accounted for 23,500 of these new part-time jobs, which helped lift the female participation rate in the workforce by more than 1 percentage point to 55.1 per cent.

However, the male participation rate declined marginally to 74 per cent, as annual growth in the traditionally male-dominated construction industry slowed to just 1.7 per cent, down from growth of 6.7 per cent in the previous quarter and 10.2 per cent in the same period last year.

There were 4,800 more people employed in the construction industry than last year, but this was due to an increase in the number of self-employed builders. The number of construction-sector employees actually fell by 1,000.

Davy economist Robbie Kelleher said the CSO figures showed that the labour market was still in good shape, despite the lower rates of employment growth.