Jobs growth is set to significantly undershoot Government targets, with a substantial proportion of labour supply needing to come from outside the State, an internal presentation from the Department of Enterprise shows.
The paper, drawn up in April of last year for senior civil servants in the department, analyses constraints on growing the labour force out to 2030.
It contains estimates showing the labour force increasing to 3.1 million people in 2030 – made up of 2.9 million people working and 135,000 unemployed – with employment and labour force growth projected to slow from 2.4 per cent in 2024 to 0.7 per cent by 2030.
The presentation, drawn up by the Labour Market and Skills Unit within the department, starkly points out that this is significantly below the programme for government target of creating 300,000 extra jobs by 2030.
“In terms of numbers, this points to an increase of 196,000 in employment relative to 2024, well below the employment targets in the programme for government,” the officials wrote.
