Press release
Annual Employment Survey 2020 and Annual Business Survey of Economic Impact 2019
From Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
Published on
Last updated on
There were 269,208 employed in the foreign-owned and 216,695 in Irish-owned agency assisted companies in 2020. Employment in foreign-owned firms increased by 3.5% since 2019, with 9,017 additional jobs. In Irish-owned firms, employment decreased by 0.7%, a decrease of 1,564 jobs since 2019.
By sector, among foreign-owned companies, the fastest growing sectors were in services. ICT Services increased its share of full-time employment from 32.0% to 38.2% between 2011-2020, so that it is now well over a third of total foreign-owned employment in the country. Business, Financial and Other Services have marginally increased from 13.6% to 17.0%. Food, Drink and Tobacco dropped from 5.4% to 3.1%. Among Irish-owned firms, Business, Financial and Other Services increased from 18.9% to 20.3% of full-time employment and ICT services increased from 12.4% to 14.1%. Therefore, at 34.3%, the Services sectors have increased their share to just over one third. Among Irish-owned firms Total Industry has declined from 68.7% to 65.7% and Food, Drink & Tobacco has declined the from 25.2% to 22.9%.
Growth in employment was recorded in all eight regions between 2011-2020 although there were variations among the regions. Over 61% of full-time employment in foreign-owned companies was in the Dublin (44.0%) and South West (17.3%) regions. The regions with the highest employment growth since 2011 were Dublin at 80.5% and the Mid-West at 66.8%. For Irish-owned firms, 46.4% of full-time employment was in the Dublin (32.5%) and South West (14.1%) regions. Employment growth was highest in the Mid-West and Dublin regions since 2011, with 55.3% and 52.5% growth respectively.
In 2019, sales, exports, value added, and direct expenditures in the Irish economy all showed strong growth for both Irish and foreign-owned companies.
Agency client companies reported a rise in sales and exports in 2019 over the previous year. This continues a substantial upward trend in results following the downturn in the economy in 2009.
The Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said:
"The results from this survey show that our agencies – Enterprise Ireland, IDA and Údarás na Gaeltachta, showed remarkable resilience in the face of immense challenges during 2020. The pandemic has had a devastating impact on hundreds of thousands of workers. However, this impact has been disproportionate and unfair with heavy job losses in some sectors such as retail, hospitality, tourism and entertainment, while some sectors were relatively protected and some even grew, as these figures show. The government will continue to help those businesses that are struggling, while also investing in bringing new jobs to Ireland through our agencies."
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment co-ordinates these surveys of the client companies of the enterprise development agencies (Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and Údarás na Gaeltachta). The results are presented by company ownership in terms of Irish and foreign-owned firms.
The indicators collected include annual sales and exports and payroll, materials and services costs. Data collected in 2019 and 2020 is merged with results of previous surveys to provide trend data and indicators are available by ownership and sector and are used by the agencies in their annual reports and end-of-year statements.