At work

There were 293,830 non-Irish nationals at work in Ireland in April 2016 accounting for 14.9 per cent of the workforce.

Polish and UK nationals dominated the non-Irish workers and accounted for 42.1 per cent (123,599) of the total.  The remaining 170,231 workers made up of 185 different nationalities. Of the 187 different nationalities working in Ireland, 12 countries had only one person working from their respective country. 

Figure 5.1 presents persons at work by sex for all other nationalities with 500 or more persons (excluding UK and Polish).

As clearly illustrated Lithuania with (21,674) persons, followed by Romania (17,134) persons were the third and fourth largest groups at work in 2016. Latvians, Italians, Spanish and French are the next largest group. Five nationalities had between 5,000 and 8,000 workers, while a further 19 had between 1,000 and 5,000 workers.

Interactive table: StatBank Link E7009

Workers by industry

While the 293,830 non-Irish national workers in 2016 could be found in all of the main industries, certain sectors dominated. The wholesale and retail trades accounted for 45,812 persons while accommodation and food services employed 40,859 persons. There were 36,387 at work in manufacturing while 21,779 were working in the health sector. The top 10 nationalities accounted for more than 70 per cent of all non-Irish national workers in these sectors in 2016. Polish, UK national, Lithuanian and Latvian workers accounted for two-thirds (67.1%) of all non-Irish in the wholesale and retail sector. UK, Poland and Indian nationals accounted for more than half (50.3%) of all non-Irish workers in the health sector.

The figures below show the top non-Irish nationalities involved in these four industrial sections. The main non-Irish groups such as Polish, UK and Lithuanian nationals dominate these figures.

Interactive table: StatBank Link E7019

Socio-economic group

Socio-economic group (SEG) classifies the entire population into one of ten groups based on the level of skill and educational attainment of the occupation (of those at work, unemployed or retired) while all other persons are classified to the socio-economic group of the person in the family on whom they are deemed to be dependent.

Non-manual workers (group D) accounted for the largest group of non-Irish nationals with 115,554 persons and representing 21.6 per cent of all non-Irish nationals. The smallest group was group I (farmers) representing just 0.6 per cent.

Figure 5.6 compares the distribution of Irish and non-Irish nationalities by socio-economic group. Proportionately more Irish nationals were assigned to the first three SEG categories - employers, managers, higher and lower professional groups (37.3% combined) - than were non-Irish nationals (27%). Relatively more non-Irish were assigned to non-manual, manual skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers (46.9% combined) compared with Irish nationals (39.2%).

Interactive table: StatBank Link E7018

Differences at nationality level

Within the top 20 nationalities, French had the highest proportion assigned to employers and managers (21%), nearly twice that of the overall non-Irish average of 11.2 per cent and higher than the Irish average of 16.2 per cent. In 2011, the highest proportion assigned to employers and managers was the Italian nationality.

Higher than average proportions assigned to higher professionals were recorded for Sudanese (51.4%), Sri Lankan (25%), Greek (22.3%) and Israeli (20.9%) nationals, reflecting the high numbers of medical doctors among these nationalities. Indians and Filipinos had the highest percentages in the lower professional group (which includes nurses and midwives) with 35.8 per cent and 25.3 per cent, respectively.

Relatively high rates of persons assigned to Own Account workers were recorded for Afghan nationals (6.7%), UK nationals (6.3%), New Zealand nationals (6.2%) and Dutch nationals (5.4%).

Higher unemployment rate for non-Irish

Census 2016 revealed that the unemployment rate for non-Irish nationals was nearly 3 per cent higher than Irish (12.5%) and stood at 15.4 per cent.

Figure 5.8 presents the unemployment rate by level of education attained. The graph shows the higher the education the lower unemployment rate for both groups. For example 7.8 per cent of Irish nationals who were educated to Advanced Certificate level were unemployed compared with 12.3 per cent of non-Irish nationals with the same level of education.

Tenure status

Table 5.1 presents the tenure status of non-Irish nationals in 2011 and 2016.

Increases in home ownership can be seen among Polish (up 3,181), Lithuanian (up 769) and Italian nationals (up 391). A fall in home ownership can be seen among groups such as UK and African nationals though this is largely a reflection of overall falls in the numbers classified to these nationalities off-set by corresponding increases in persons with dual nationalities (who are classified as Irish).

Table 5.2 examines rent paid by non-Irish nationals.  While US nationals paid the highest overall weekly rent (€296 per week) Brazilian nationals witnessed the highest increase in rent paid, up 32 per cent over the five years, no doubt attributed to both the higher turnover and location among persons in this group.