The number of people in ‘agency-assisted’ jobs in Galway is at its highest level since the Celtic Tiger boom, according to new figures.
And the city and county are hugely reliant on foreign-owned manufacturing companies for employment, the research shows.
The newly-published report from the Western Development Commission on businesses which have received assistance from IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and Údarás na Gaeltachta shows there were 23,655 people in such jobs in 2013.
‘Modern Manufacturing’ (which includes medical devices and Information and Communications Technology) is the biggest employer in Galway, with 8,750 permanent jobs.
In fact, manufacturing plays a bigger role in employment in the West than anywhere else in the country – more than one in every ten such jobs in the State are in Galway.
The figures also show that Galway has the third-highest share in Ireland of agency-assisted jobs as a share of total jobs at 23.5%.
“This is the third highest share in Ireland after Cork and Dublin. The total number currently employed in assisted companies in Galway is similar to the pre-recession levels and close to the highest of the ten year period.
“3,500 were working on a temporary/part-time basis. This is the highest share of such jobs among the western counties, reflecting a high proportion of non-permanent employment, fourth highest in the country,” the report reads.
The figures also show that 60% of the jobs were created by foreign-owned companies.
Galway was hit worse by the economic collapse than any other western county, but still managed to make a strong recovery.
“Between Galway’s highest year (2007) and its lowest (2009) there was a decline of 17.2% in jobs. This included the loss of over half of all temporary/part-time jobs and a decline of 8.2% in permanent jobs.
“Galway’s overall performance was worse than the Western Region as a whole (down 13.6%) between 2007 and 2009. The main reason for the difference was a far greater loss of temporary/part-time jobs in Galway where this type of employment was more significant.
“One feature of the recent recovery is that, although the total number of jobs in Galway in 2013 is very similar to 2007, 1,000 more of these are permanent. The share of full-time jobs in Galway has increased with the post-recession recovery,” the report reads.
