To understand where income is generated, we must look at regional employment figures. The main driver of county income will always be wages and salaries for employees or profits for self-employed, in that respect, we anticipate a strong correlation between the total number of people employed and the disposable income in any one county. Figure 2.1 is largely similar to what is observed in Figure 1.2, the Dublin NUTS 3 region has a significantly higher concentration of workers when compared with all other regions. The South-West and Mid-East are on a par with one another and follow after Dublin. The lowest number of workers reside in both the Border and Midlands regions.
Dublin City and County has seen strong year-on-year growth in employment for all years since 2013, with the exception of 2020 where an annual decline of 4.1% was observed due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Numbers in employment in Dublin have rebounded in 2021 to 726,833 and are 1.6% higher than what was observed in 2019. This trend is obversed across all regions where numbers in employment are higher in 2021 than 2019 despite the decline in employment in 2020 due to COVID-19 related workplace closures. The largest increases in the number employed were in the Border region, which saw an 11.1% increase to 186,977 from 2020, followed by the Mid-West region at 226,129 respresenting a 7.8% increase from 2020.
The percentage of workers in each county for 2021 is shown in Map 2.1. Under a third (30%) of all persons employed in the state work in Dublin City and County, followed by Cork City and County which account for 13% of all persons employed. The highest proportion of workers reside in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Kildare in that order. Cities in Ireland have the highest proportion of workers due to higher populations and the fact they attract workers from surrounding counties. Conversely, counties in the Midland and Border regions have the lowest percentage of workers due to low populations and lack of industry in these regions.
Labour productivity is the main measure of the efficiency of the labour force and is a key indicator for regional economies. Labour productivity is measured as output per hour worked, where output is measured as Gross Value Added (GVA) at basic prices. A higher measure of labour productivity can indicate that a region or sector is using its labour force more efficiently to produce output. As seen in the Productivity in Ireland 2021 publication, output and subsequently productivity in Ireland is largely influenced by the presence of foreign owned multinational enterprises (MNEs). Productivity rises significantly in regions where foreign-dominated sectors contribute largely to the overall output of the region.
Figure 2.3 shows the labour productivity in Euro per hour for each NUTS 2 region. Labour productivity in the Southern region was €125/hour in 2021, the largest of all three regions, followed by Eastern & Midland at €113/hour and the Northern & Western region at €45/hour. The largest increase in productivity was also seen in the Southern region where a 13.6% increase from 2020 was observed. The significant increase is due largely to the presence of industry in the region. The Eastern & Midland region saw a 4% increase from 2020, the increase is driven by the Information & Communication and Industry sectors. The Northern & Western region saw no change in their productivity in 2021. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, no decline in productivity has been observed in any region since 2017.
Figure 2.3 shows the labour productivity of each NUTS 2 region by economic sector. The highest productivity was observed in Industry in the Southern region (€460/hour) followed by Information & Communication in the Eastern & Midland region (€365/hour). Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing is the least productive among all three regions followed by the Arts, Entertainment & Other Services sector. The most productive sectors for the Northern & Western regions are Industry (€95/hour), Professional, Admin & Support Services (€55/hour), followed by the Information & Communication sector (€54/hour).
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