Irish Labor Market

In 1980s, a huge number of well-educated Irish youth migrated to USA for the hope of finding
suitable jobs as they couldn’t find suitable jobs for themselves. At that time, the economy of
Ireland was going through a bad phase because of financial crisis.
However, the country had a sudden robust economic growth from 1990s to 2007. During this
boom known as “Celtic Tiger,” free education was provided to people which created many new
entrepreneurs. More businesses created more jobs and so greater number of people were
employed. Their unemployment rate was declining at this period and it even came down to only
4% in 2000, which sustained until the recession of 2006-2008. Moreover, many literate and
skilled immigrants came to the country to seek jobs.
Unfortunately, Ireland started to lose the progress it made in another recession which was caused
by low interest rates and credit availability. In 2007, the construction sector was employing the
majority of employees, as demand for houses went high. After that, there was a huge collapse in
the price of houses resulting in about 60% loss in construction employment over the latter three
years. In 2011, the unemployment rate in the industry was 15%, at its highest point. Skilled Irish
workers mostly aged 25-54 years began to depart for UK, Canada and Australia due to lack of
job opportunities. As a result, there was again a “brain-drain” in the nation like in the 1980s.
There was also a decrease in the number of immigrants coming to the country.
Ireland gradually has been recovering from the recession and there has been much improvement
in its labor market. The construction sector has showed the lowest unemployment while
education and health sectors come next in reducing unemployment. Their unemployment rate is
7.8% in June 2016, which is lower than that of 9.4% in June, 2015. Last year, their employment
rate increased by 2.3%. To tackle unemployment, its government implemented the labor
activation policy in which the government spent money on training programs for unemployed
and specific skills programs.