New figures from last year's Census show strong growth in the numbers of construction workers, but a continuing decline in the proportion working in manufacturing.
The Central Statistics Office said the number of road workers almost trebled to 8,802 since the previous census in 2002. The number of pipe layers, crane drivers, roofers and plasterers all increased by more than 70% in the four-year period.
But the percentage of the labour force working in manufacturing dropped from 12.6% in 2002 to 11.8% in 2006.
Other figures showed that around 93% of people from the ten countries which joined the EU in 2004 were in the labour force. This compared with 68% for people from outside the EU and 62.5% for the population as a whole.
Almost a third of workers from Asia had occupations in the professional, technical and health sectors, compared with 16.4% in the general population.
