Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 March 2013
119. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will correct the jobs action plan which claims that 12,000 net jobs were created in the private sector, to reflect the findings of the Central Statistics Office in the recent quarterly household survey that found the number of employees in the private sector reduced by 400 during the year. [11807/13]
View answerThe latest Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) issued by the Central Statistics Office covers the Fourth Quarter of 2012 and was published on 27 February 2013. The QNHS shows that there was an overall increase in employment year-on-year across the economy of 1,200 people. While this is a modest increase in overall terms, it is the first annual increase in employment recorded since the Second Quarter of 2008. This follows on from seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter increases in employment of 3,900 in Quarter 2 2012, and 2,200 in Quarter 3 2012.
The reference, in the Deputy’s question, to a reduction of 400 employees in the private sector seems to relate to Table A3 of the QNHS. This table provides an indication of the number of employees in the public sector and the private sector, based on the CSO’s Earnings, Hours and Employment Costs Survey. However, the figures published in this table do not include all persons in employment in the private sector. For example, they exclude employees in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries sector, and those who are self-employed. Figures provided elsewhere in the QNHS show an increase in employment in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries sector year-on-year. The number of people who are self-employed also increased year-on-year. There may, of course be some overlap between these two categories.
What is clear is that the number of people employed in the public sector, as set out in Table A3, has declined considerably as part of the Government’s Public Sector Reform Plan, while employment numbers are increasing in the private sector, as reflected in the headline QNHS figures. In addition, the increase in employment numbers in the private sector which are referenced in the Action Plan for Jobs 2013 are supported by the job creation figures of Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, who between them supported the creation of almost 10,000 net extra jobs in 2012. Employment also increased in sectors outside the normal remit of the enterprise agencies, such as wholesale and retail.
