While employment in the sector is possibly closing in on the boom-time era, housing output is nowhere near those levels. Photo: Getty
The number of people employed in the construction sector reached more than 198,000 in 2022, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office. The 2022 data shows construction accounted for 20pc of businesses, or enterprises, and 9pc of what are described as “persons employed”.
The numbers are based on a survey of the construction sector and indicate that the absolute number of people at work in construction in 2022 was closing in on the peak years of the building boom in 2006 and 2007 when the construction workforce peaked at 210,000.
The numbers published yesterday in the CSO’s ‘Business in Ireland 2022 – Summary Results’ are significantly higher than other data, including payroll survey numbers also published by the statistics office.
The payroll data, based on tax paid by workers, put the number working in construction at 143,100 in June this year, which was up from 133,300 at the end of 2022. The most recent Labour Force Survey data puts the numbers at 171,000.
Tracking the number of people active in construction-related work can be tricky because some people work part-time in farming or fishing or in trades where their time is split between construction and other sectors.
The much higher employment number is based on ongoing surveys of the construction industry. If correct, it suggests that builders and developers have been able to rebuild a workforce that was scattered abroad and into other occupations after the construction bust in 2008.
The 2022 data shows construction accounted for the largest number of active enterprises of any sector in 2022, but was only the fifth-largest sector in terms of employment.
However, the output of the sector, especially when it comes to housing, remains well below the levels hit in the mid-2000s.
In 2006 and 2007 construction workers accounted for 13.4pc of the workforce and housing completions peaked at 88,000 in a single year. Housing completions this year are expected to be in and around 33,000 units.
At the peak of the building boom time construction was responsible for around 10pc of the total size of the economy. The latest data indicates that even at the highest estimate construction workers account for only 9pc of the now much larger workforce, far less than manufacturing or retail.
Turnover in the sector in 2022 was just under €46bn, dwarfed by the €405bn size of the manufacturing sector.