Women are entering the workforce twice as fast as men, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office. But they are twice as likely to work part-time.
Volume seven of Census 96, devoted to occupations, shows an increase of about 150,000 in the workforce compared with 1991. This is made up of just over 49,000 more men and 102,000 more women.
The number of people engaged in farming, fishing and forestry has fallen since 1991, while those in all other types of employment have expanded. Professional, technical and health workers see the biggest increase in their numbers, by 42,000, followed closely by service workers, whose number has gone up by about 40,000.
Many more women than men are entering these occupations, which between them account for almost 52,000 of the increase of women in the workforce. The number of men only increased by 32,000 in these occupations.
This reflects a general bias in these occupations towards women, who outnumber men by 65,000 in clerical, managerial and government work, and by 25,000 in professional, technical and health-related work.
However, men outnumber women by two to one as managers and executives (44,217 as against 20,640). Women predominate in the more lowly forms of clerical work, and among teachers and health workers. There are 127,570 female part-time workers, compared with 63,199 males.
The largest concentration of clerical, managerial and government workers is in the Dublin area, where they account for almost one in four of the total workforce, compared with one in six in the State as a whole. The next largest group of workers in Dublin is professional, technical and health workers. This contrasts with Munster, where less than one in seven workers are in the clerical and managerial area. The building boom is reflected in the Census figures, with an increase of 25 per cent in the number of workers there.
The census also shows the unequal distribution of earned wealth between different parts of the country. The towns of Malahide and Greystones, on the north and south coasts of Dublin respectively, have the highest concentration of employers, managers and higher professionals in the country.
The towns with the highest concentrations of skilled manual workers were Edenderry (23.7 per cent) Clara (22.6 per cent) and Muine Bheag (22.4 per cent). These towns, along with Buncrana and Bailieborough, were also those with the highest proportion of manufacturing occupations.