Official figures show that employment growth slowed again in the first quarter of this year.
The Quarterly National Household Survey, published by the Central Statistics Office, shows that there were just over 2.1 million people working in the first quarter, an increase of 53,000 or 2.6% on the same period a year earlier.
This compares with jobs growth of 3.2% in the previous quarter and 3.8% in the same quarter last year. Women accounted for almost three-quarters of the employment growth in the first quarter, while part-time jobs accounted for two-thirds of the growth.
102,100 people were unemployed, up 8,700 from a year earlier. All of the increase was due to a rise in unemployment among males. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 4.8% from 4.6% in the previous quarter.
The figures show contrasting fortunes for different sectors of the economy, with an annual increase of almost 10% in the financial and other business services category. This area accounted for almost half of total employment growth and 86% of total male employment growth.
The wholesale and retail trade sector also showed strong annual growth of 7.3%, but construction employment dropped by 9,800, or 3.4%, over the year, a sharp contrast with the 28,500 growth in the same quarter last year.
The CSO figures show that 352,000 non-Irish people were in work in Q1, more than 16% of the total, while just over 21,000 were unemployed. Almost 40% of workers in the hotels and restaurants sector were non-Irish.
