Women at work tops 60% for first time

The employment rate for women has exceeded 60 per cent for the first time, according to the CSO's latest Quarterly National Household Survey.

The survey shows the rate for females employed in the economy aged between 15-64 was 60.3 per cent in the third quarter of 2006.

The Government had committed itself to achieving a female employment rate of 60 per cent by 2010 in the Lisbon Agenda. This has now been achieved four years ahead of schedule.

The survey shows the rate for males also increased over the year from 78.2 per cent to 78.7 per cent, bringing the overall employment rate to 69.6 per cent.

The number of people in employment grew by over 83,000 or 4.2 per cent in the year to the third quarter of 2006, bringing the total in employment to 2,073,300.

This compares with an annual growth rate of 4.6 per cent in the previous quarter and to a rate of 5.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2005.

Employment in the construction and health sectors - which increased by 25,700 and 19,400 respectively over the year - jointly accounted for just over 54 per cent of the total growth in employment.

Overall, the labour force continued to show strong growth in the year to the third quarter of 2006, with an increase of almost 92,000 or 4.4 per cent.

As a result, there was an estimated 2,178,100 persons in the labour force in the third quarter, accounting for 64.1 per cent of all persons aged 15 and over. This compares with a participation rate of 63.2 per cent in the same quarter last year.

The CSO estimates there are 280,300 foreign nationals aged 15 years of age and over currently in the State, 70 per cent of which were in employment.

The fastest growth was among people joining the workforce from the new EU Accession states.

The number of Non-Irish nationals in the labour force from outside the EU also increased significantly from 47,500 to 60,100 over the year.

Non-Irish nationals accounted for a quarter of workers in hotels and restaurants and almost 13 per cent in construction.

Minister of State for Defence Tom Kitt said: "The numbers of people in employment have once again increased and are now at historic high levels.

Mr Kitt said the labour market was performing strongly in comparison with European neighbours.

"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 per cent.

"The comparable figures for the EU25 were 2 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively," Mr Kitt said.