Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 February 2024
202. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of job opportunities for women likely to emerge in the manufacturing or services sectors over the next twelve months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5980/24]
View answerThe Programme for Government committed to promoting higher female labour market participation, as well as less commuting and greater regional balance, through increased remote, flexible and hub-working arrangements to support families in their parenting and childcare choices.
According to the latest available data from the Central Statistics Office’s Labour Force Survey, female labour force participation is at a record high. In Q3 2023, the female participation rate stood at 60.9 percent, a more than 10 percentage point increase on the pandemic driven low of 50.1 percent in Q2 2020, and a 4.5 percentage point increase over the pre-pandemic rate in late 2019.
The female participation rate has grown significantly more than the male rate since Q4 2019, just prior to the pandemic, closing the gender gap in the workforce. The male participation rate has increased by 1.7 percentage points during this time, to 70.6 percent.
The number of women in employment is now 183,200 higher than in Q4 2019, compared with growth in male employment of 121,700. The total number of women in the labour force is now over 1.3 million, of which 1.26 million are in employment, with women representing 47.1 percent of the labour force.
As well as continued funding increases for early learning and childcare, the period since publication of the Programme for Government has encompassed the launch and implementation of Making Remote Work, Ireland’s National Remote Work strategy, which aims to ensure that remote work is a permanent feature in the Irish workplace, in a way that maximises economic, social and environmental benefits.
The strategy is setting out to create a conducive environment for remote working, developing and leveraging a remote work infrastructure, and building a remote work policy and guidance framework. The strategy is a key instrument for government in addressing obstacles to labour market inclusion, and female participation in particular, due to the disproportionate burden of unpaid care work undertaken by women. It is enabling improved access to the workplace through greater flexibility in terms of time management, childcare and commuting options.
The Government’s labour market activation strategy Pathways to Work 2021-2025 is also working to support greater female labour market participation. Its commitments include development and implementation of a new ‘Returners’ programme, to help integrate those who left or have been outside the workforce for some time, increasing the number of children in receipt of State supports for Early Learning and Care and School Age Funding Programmes, and ensuring that the particular circumstances of lone parents are considered in the assessment of a Working Age Payment.
Through continued implementation of these strategies, as well as the broader commitment to ensuring a resilient labour market and sound enterprise environment for job creation set out in the White Paper on Enterprise, the Government aims to build on this momentum in female labour market participation, and close the gender participation gap even further.
