Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)

The Quarterly National Household Survey, QNHS, is the official source of estimates of employment in the State. The most recent figures available are for the fourth quarter of 2011. The data requested by the Deputy in respect of employment is presented in a table. The number of persons in employment peaked at 2,149,800 in the third quarter of 2007. The first annual decline in employment was recorded in the second quarter of 2008. The pace of decline was greatest during 2009, with a fall of 184,700, or 8.8%, recorded in the year to the third quarter of 2009. Since then, the rate of reduction in employment has slowed. As of the fourth quarter of 2011, the level of employment has fallen to 1,807,800, a decrease of 342,000, or 15.9%, from peak levels.

The number employed in the fourth quarter of 2011 was 0.8% lower than the level recorded a year earlier. This is the lowest annual reduction recorded since the second quarter of 2008. As a further indicator of the relative stabilisation of the labour market, we can note that a quarterly increase of 10,000 was recorded in the seasonally adjusted employment series, the first such increase since the end of 2007.

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