Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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14. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his views on the latest independent report carried out by Glassdoor Economic Research that found that Ireland ranked third highest for under employment in the European countries analysed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2093/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The US-based Glassdoor Economic Research recently published a report entitled “Where is the Best Country in Europe to Get a Job”. The report suggest that Ireland has the third highest percentage of involuntary part-time workers – that is, people who work part-time but would rather be working full-time – amongst the 18 European countries reviewed.

The labour market data used in the report is based on OECD data sources for 2014. However, the pace of Ireland’s economic recovery and employment growth has been such that the figures in the Glassdoor report are now out of date. The most recent Quarterly National Household Survey - for Quarter 3 2015 - shows that 106,500 people were classified as part-time underemployed workers, compared to 124,300 in Quarter 3 2014. The 2015 figures represent approximately 5% of the total number of people in employment, compared to 9% of total employment based on 2014 figures in the Glassdoor report. It also shows a convergence in the space of just one year towards the OECD average used in the Glassdoor report.

Other figures used in the Glassdoor report for Ireland are similarly out of date – for example, our unemployment rate now stands at 8.8% compared to the 10% figure used in the report.

The Action Plan for Jobs has played a key role in improving the environment to help Irish businesses to create jobs, and in attracting Foreign Direct Investment.

Since the first Action Plan for Jobs was launched in 2012, over 135,000 additional jobs have been created in the economy, across all sectors and in all regions of the country. Almost 90% of these jobs have been in full-time employment. As the economy recovers and new job opportunities arise, I would anticipate that the number of workers who are underemployed will decrease further.

Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland have both just recorded the best set of job creation figures in their history. Between the two agencies, their client companies added 22,000 net additional jobs to the economy in 2015 alone – 89% of them full-time – with a focus on exporting sectors that can provide sustainable, high quality jobs. This is a remarkable performance and has contributed to Ireland’s unemployment rate falling below 9% for the first time since 2008.

The 2016 Action Plan for Jobs was published earlier this week and will continue to build on the progress which we have made over the last number of years. Our target is to support the creation of an additional 50,000 new jobs in 2016, which would bring the number of people at work to over 2 million by the end of 2016. We have already exceeded the objective which we set ourselves in 2012 of having 100,000 extra jobs in the economy by 2016. We have upped our level of ambition and have set a target of having 2.1 million people in employment by 2018, with the longer-term goal of having 2.18 million people at work by 2020.