Industrial development agency Forfas has reported a third consecutive year in which there has been a net decrease in employment in agency-supported companies.
At the launch of its annual report today, Forfas said that full time jobs in companies under the remit of IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Shannon Development and Udaras na Gaeltachta amounted to 297,500 in 2003, down 7,500 on the previous year.
Over 22,500 jobs were created in manufacturing and internationally traded services in 2003, but these gains were offset by losses of 30,000 during the year.
The manufacturing sector accounted for all of the net decrease in employment in 2003, Forfas said. There were 14,000 new jobs created in the sector last year, but it also suffered 21,500 job losses. The computer/electronics sector accounted for almost half of this decrease, while the textile and paper and printing sectors also had a tough year.
Within the internationally traded services, job gains and losses balanced each other out with about 8,500 gains and the same number of losses.
According to today's Forfas report, the Irish economy performed strongly during 2003 in the context of a difficult global economy, with employment levels increasing by over 44,000 and unemployment falling to 4.6% in the fourth quarter.
It said that most of the growth in the economy took place in the public sector, private services and the construction industry rather than in the more export-oriented industrial sectors supported by the enterprise development agencies.
Agency supported companies spent €34.2 billion in the Irish economy in 2003. This is made up of €10.8m on payroll costs, €14.4 billion on raw materials produced in Ireland and €9 billion on Irish supplied services.
'The past 10 years have brought an unprecedented rate of change in both the domestic and global economic environments,' commented Martin Cronin, Forfas CEO.
'Our economy is now fundamentally different and the competitive advantages which have brought us to this point will not be sufficient to provide us with sustained development and success,' he warned.
'We must plan for an Irish business environment that is more attractive to increasingly complex and skilled activities, which will support better jobs throughout the country and that are less vulnerable to overseas competition,' he added.
