The increased prevalence of involuntary temporary and part-time work in the years after the 2008 financial crisis led to a substantial increase in the proportion of Irish workers in insecure employment, according to new research by EuroFound. In a significant new study of the European Union (EU) labour market, the Dublin-based organisation said that the rate of “employment vulnerability” increased by more than 60 per cent in the Republic between 2009 and 2021.EuroFound, an agency of the EU that researches working conditions across the bloc and advises policymakers, said that more than one in five (21.1 per cent) Irish jobs were classed as vulnerable by 2021. This was well above the EU average of 18.8 per cent in the same year. The research found that the Republic experienced a rapid growth in the proportion of vulnerable jobs over the period, increasing from a “relatively low rate” of 12.8 per cent in 2009. By 2021, the Irish labour market had the 11th highest rate of vulnerability among the 27 EU member states, just above Austria and Germany. Overall, vulnerability levels decreased across the bloc between 2014 and 2021 as economies recovered from the post-crash recession and governments intervened by banning zero-hour contracts and other similar arrangements. This was not the case in Ireland, where the rate increased over those seven years, indicating “persistent structural challenges” within the Irish labour market, EuroFound said. Will the State’s plan for the Carlton Cinema site revitalise O’Connell Street? Listen | 25:33Employment vulnerability is a “multidimensional” concept that measures precarity by taking “income inadequacy, employment insecurity and lack of workplace rights” into account, the agency said. Of those three metrics, employment insecurity was the biggest factor in the sharp increase in the vulnerability rate here. It accounted for 56 per cent of the Irish vulnerability rate, the highest share in any member state, EuroFound said. Across Europe, the rise of involuntary temporary and part-time work was the single biggest contributor to the increase in employment vulnerability in the period.Income inadequacy – an insufficiency of earnings to maintain adequate living standards – was the second most important factor in Ireland, accounting for 35 per cent of vulnerability. This counts among the lowest rates in the EU over the period, EuroFound said. The Republic also had among the lowest rates of vulnerability caused by a lack of workplace rights, suggesting the phenomenon mostly relates to “employment insecurity rather than working conditions issues”. Separate research published by the ESRI last month revealed that around 5 per cent of workers are at risk of poverty in Ireland. That is about 114,000 people. The majority – 74,000 – work part-time.