Official figures show that employment growth in the economy ground to a halt in the second quarter of this year, mainly due to a sharp drop in construction jobs.
The Central Statistics Office also said unemployment rose by more than 15% over the year to 115,500, with all of the increase due to male unemployment. Most of the increase came in the past three months as the economic downturn accelerated. The unemployment rate jumped to 5.1% from 4.8% in the first quarter of the year.
The CSO's Quarterly National Household Survey showed that just over 2.1 million people were in work in the quarter, just 0.3% higher than in the same period last year. While the number of women in work grew by 21,500, the number of men working dropped by 14,500 over the year.
Employment in the construction sector fell by 26,800, or 9.5%, compared with a year earlier. This contrasts with a growth rate of more than 6% at the same time last year.
Other sectors still showed growth, however, with the biggest increase of 16,200 coming in the wholesale and retail sector. Health and finance also showed jobs growth, but employment in the manufacturing and hotels and restaurants sectors dropped.
Growth in the total labour force is also slowing, up just 1% to just over 2.2 million. The strong growth in the number of non-Irish workers seen in recent years also slowed, with an increase of 25,700 over the year. This is less than half the growth in the same period last year. Non-Irish people now account for 16.3% of the workforce. There was a fall of 7,000 in the number of foreign construction workers.
