The Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth sets a target of 75% of 20-64 year olds in employment by 2020. The headline Europe 2020 target is focused on employed persons aged 20 to 64 as a percentage of the population aged 20 to 64. Member States may set their own national targets in the light of the headline Europe 2020 target taking into account their relative starting positions and national circumstances and draw up national reform programmes setting out the actions they aim to undertake in order to implement the strategy.
As noted in the Social Justice Ireland report "Ireland and the Europe 2020 Strategy," Ireland’s National Reform Programme 2011 set an employment rate target range for Ireland of 69%-71% for 2020. The NRP also stated that the target level of ambition would be reviewed in 2014 in the context of the mid-term review of the Europe 2020 strategy. Ireland’s employment rate for 20-64yrs rose from 66.4% in 1998 to a peak of 73.8% in 2007. This growth was underpinned by rapid increases in employment, particularly in sectors such as construction, financial services, health and education, and was assisted by long term positive increases in educational attainment and higher female participation. Moreover, this increase in the employment rate occurred while the 20-64 years population was itself growing rapidly – from 2.12 million in 1998 to 2.74 million on 2007.
Ireland’s employment rate 20-64yrs averaged 63.8% in 2011. The rate at Q3 2012 was also 63.8%. The main factors underpinning the decline since 2007 are the decrease in the construction sector, agriculture, industry (traditional manufacturing) and locally traded services. In contrast to the period of strong labour market performance up to mid-2008, labour markets throughout the EU experienced a sharp setback in 2009. After several years of relatively strong labour market performance, the economic crisis led to a sudden reversal of employment growth which threatened to sweep away much of the success of previous years. Labour market performance worsened across all Member States, but most notably in the Baltic States, Ireland and Spain. Most Member States have since recorded an employment level below that of four years ago. The EU Employment Guidelines and the EU employment targets, which are non-binding, have remained unchanged since 2010 and the European Council has declined to make small changes in the targets in order to 'engineer' or 'fine-tune' them given the high degree of uncertainty in labour market projections.
The Action Plan for Jobs is the Government’s main policy response to supporting job creation. The Action Plan is a multi-annual process that commenced in 2012, with 270 specific commitments across all Government Departments and 36 agencies that will help to support jobs growth.
In spite of a very difficult domestic and external economic environment, we are beginning to see the positive impact of the Government’s policies. 2012 saw significant net job creation by EI and IDA-supported companies, building on the positive results of 2011 and following successive years of significant net job losses. In spite of continued job losses in more traditional sectors such as Construction, and Financial, Insurance and Administrative activities, we have seen an increase in employment in sectors targeted by the Action Plan for Jobs, for example Tourism Agri-food, ICT and Digital Gaming. I am currently coordinating the preparation of the 2013 Action Plan for Jobs on behalf of the Government and this Plan will be published in the coming weeks.
