Recent years have seen dramatic growth in employment following unprecedented economic
growth and development during the 1990s. Total employment in Ireland grew by a
remarkable 534,000, or by 46%, in the eight years from 1993 to 2001, and over 220,000 of
this was achieved between 1998 and 2001. In very recent years, the rate of growth in
employment fallen somewhat, from a peak of almost 7% in 1997-1998 to about 4% in 2000-
2001.
The rapid growth in the economy and in employment after 1993 led to a steady decline in
unemployment from 220,000 in 1993 to 127,000 in the 2nd quarter of 1998 and to 65,000 in
the 2nd quarter of 2001. The unemployment rate thus fell from 15.7% of the labour force in
1993 to 7.8% in the 2nd quarter of 1998 and to 3.7% in the 2nd quarter of 2001. With the
deterioration in the international economy, and the slowdown in the Irish growth rate in 2001,
unemployment increased to just under 80,000, or 4.3% of the labour force, in the 3rd quarter
of 2001
