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Ireland's construction sector employment up 18.5 pct last year

Xinhua, August 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

Ireland's construction sector employment grew by 18.5 percent last year, according to official figures on Wednesday.

The figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed last year saw construction sector employment grow by almost 20,000 to 126,000 people.

Meanwhile, the number of houses being built is increasing and the number of commencement notices for construction of houses has more than doubled when compared to 2014, according to the CSO figures.

The CSO said the number of planning permissions in the first quarter of 2015 has increased by 97 percent when compared to the same period in 2014.

Last year, the Irish government published the Construction 2020 strategy, one of the key actions in that strategy was the addition of 60,000 jobs in the sector by 2020 and to increase housing supply to meet demand.

The Irish construction sector suffered a massive decline when the country's economy collapsed in 2008. The sector at that time was overheated, it was employing 280,000 people, delivering 90,000 housing units a year and was contributing almost 25 percent of Ireland's GNP.

By 2012, the numbers employed had reduced to less than 100,000, the number of housing units had fallen to below 8,000 and the sector was contributing 6.5 percent of Ireland's GNP. Endit