Just over nine out of every 10 migrants from the new EU accession states who were living in Ireland at the time of the census last year were in the workforce, figures released yesterday by the Central Statistics Office show.
The census figures reveal that the 93 per cent labour force participation rate for this group compared with a figure of 68 per cent for non-EU nationals as a whole.
The labour force participation rate for the whole population stood at 62.5 per cent.
The census figures show that approximately 103,000 of the 110,527 foreign nationals from the 10 new EU accession states who were aged 15 and over in April last year were in the workforce.
The figures also show that around one in three workers from Asia had occupations in the professional, technical and health sectors. This compared with 16.4 per cent for the population overall.
The new figures also reveal dramatic growth in the construction sector from the period from the previous census in 2002.
The figures show that the number of road workers almost trebled from 2,980 in April 2002 to 8,802 in April 2006.
The figures also show that the number of pipelayers, bricklayers, crane drivers, roofers and plasterers all increased by over 70 per cent over this four-year period. The census report also highlights the continuing decline in the numbers of people employed in manufacturing.
It says that the proportion of manufacturing workers fell from 12.6 per cent in 2002 to 11.8 per cent in 2006.
"The towns with the highest percentages of manufacturing occupations in 2006 were Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, with 38 per cent and Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, with 32.9 per cent, while at the other end of the scale, Malahide in Co Dublin with 5.1 per cent , and An Daingean, Co Kerry with 5.1 per cent had the lowest," it states.
The census report says that there were 278,000 non-Irish nationals in the workforce in April last year, of whom 61,366 were from the UK.
The largest number of non-Irish nationals, 41,737, were classified in the census as personal services and childcare workers.
There were 30,197 non-Irish nationals working in the building and construction sector.
The census figures show that as of April 2006, there were 202,000 people working in sales, 201,000 personal services and childcare workers, 180,000 clerical and office workers and 179,000 people in construction.
The census figures reveal that there were 79,000 teachers and 57,500 staff working in central and local Government.
The report says that the towns with the highest concentration of clerical, managing and Government workers were in north Co Dublin with Malahide with 31.2 per cent, Portmarnock with 29.9 per cent and Donabate, with 28.6 per cent.
The report says that at national level, clerical, managing and Government workers accounted for 17.6 per cent of the workforce.
The census figures also show that Malahide in north Dublin had the highest proportion of its population aged 15 and over classified as employers, managers and higher professionals.
"These groups combined represented a total of 39.5 per cent of the relevant population. Enniskerry, 38.4 per cent, Greystones, 36.3 per cent and Portmarnock , 34.7 per cent were next in line", the report says.
The census report says that the largest number of skilled manual workers were in Ballyjamesduff with 20 per cent, Gort with 19.3 per cent and Muinebeag with 18.4 per cent.
