Official figures show that the average number of hours worked in the construction industry fell by almost 5% in the year to December 2008.
The Central Statistics Office said the number of hours worked each week dropped from 44.9 to 42.8, a fall of 4.7%.
Average weekly earnings for all workers in the industry fell by 2.4% in the year, though there was an increase in the hourly rate. Weekly earnings for unskilled workers dropped by 5%, while for skilled workers the fall was 3.1%.
Separate figures from the CSO today show that production in manufacturing industries fell by 0.8% in January 2009 compared to the same time the previous year.
The biggest changes were seen in the making of electrical machinery, which slumped 40.1%, while the radio, television and communications sector saw manufacturing decline by 38.4%. However, there was an increase of 17.2% in the chemical sector.
The CSO says that the modern sector - which is made up of a number of high-tech and chemical industries - showed an annual increase in production in January of 3.7%. The traditional sector saw a decrease of 11.3%.
