Industrial employment falls 2% in March

Industrial employment in the Republic fell by an unadjusted 2 per cent for first quarter of this year according to the Central Statistics Office.

The numbers employed in industry was 259,800 in March 2002, a decrease of 10,400 from March 2001. The figures represent an annual fall of 3.8 per cent.

Employment was down by 5,400 between December 2001 and March 2002. When seasonally adjusted, the decrease was 1,700 for the same period.

The CSO’s preliminary estimates of industrial earnings for March 2002 show that average weekly earnings of industrial workers in all industries increased by 9.7 per cent when compared with March 2001

Industrial hourly earnings rose by 12.6 per cent while aver-age hours worked decreased by 2.5 per cent in the same period.

Average weekly earnings of All Employees (Industrial, Clerical and Managerial) rose by 9.4 per cent in the year to March 2002.