The Irish economy has translated strong economic growth into exceptionally large numbers of new jobs in a short period. Based on the most recent figures published by the Central Statistics Office employment has grown by 3.8% resulting in 63,000 extra persons at work in the 12 months to the fourth quarter 2000. During this period unemployment declined to its lowest level in 20 years with an unemployment rate of 3.9%. Of the 69,000 persons unemployed, based on the ILO measure, 24,000 are long-term unemployed equivalent to 1.4% of the labour force.
The rapid growth in the economy and in employment has resulted in a significant tightening of the labour market. This is evident not alone from the dramatic reduction in the unemployment rate but also in increased vacancy levels and a general acceleration in wage levels. The most recent FÁS-ESRI-Forfás survey of vacancies in the private sector in early 2000 shows that there were 77,600 vacancies. This exceeds the overall numbers unemployed. One quarter of firms stated that they had difficulties in filling vacancies giving a variety of reasons including competition for labour, shortage of applicants with practical skills and a shortage of applicants with experience. As many as 15% of these firms had tried to recruit from abroad.