Eastern Europe Drives Irish Jobs Growth

Ireland and Britain have been inundated with jobseekers -- chiefly from Poland and the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- since the European Union expanded eastward in 2004. Both nations have grown quickly accustomed to Poles, in particular, building their roads, fixing their cars and pouring their pints.

Sweden, like Britain and Ireland, opened its employment market from the start but experienced much less immigration, while other EU members have either barred the newcomers or lifted restrictions more slowly.

Ireland's quarterly labor force report found that the economy gained 67,600 jobs from September 2006 to August 2007. Foreigners -- 83 percent of whom came from the new EU states of the east -- filled 48,400 posts, or 71.4 percent.

The latest figures indicated that Ireland's jobs market is growing twice as fast as the average across the 27-nation EU, while its available work force is expanding at more than four times the EU average.

The report said about 12 percent of jobholders in Ireland today are immigrants -- including 30 percent of workers in hotels and restaurants and about 14 percent in jobs involving construction or production.

It said Ireland has added about 7,500 workers from the newest EU members, Bulgaria and Romania, even though Ireland has not opened its labor market to those countries and requires them to seek personal work visas.

The report also cautioned that Ireland's traditional methods for collecting labor data could be underestimating the contribution of foreign workers by 20 percent to 25 percent.

The fastest-growing sectors in Ireland's jobs market are financial/business services and retail/wholesale trade. The most dynamically growing employer in recent years -- construction -- saw jobs growth drop markedly to 1.7 percent this year from 10.2 percent last year, reflecting a sudden reversal in Irish property prices.