One in eight workers in the State is a non-Irish national, the latest census figures show.
The number of non-Irish nationals aged 15 years and over employed in the economy increased from 190,100 in 2002 to 367,200 last year - or by 93.1 per cent.
The Irish labour force grew by 17.1 per cent between 2002 and 2006. Image: Brenda Fitzsimons.
The figures, published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today, show the number of persons in the labour force grew by 308,500 or 17.1 per cent between 2002 and 2006.
This was largely accounted for by an employment growth of some 288,400 during the period. Nearly half of the increase in employment during the four-year period was accounted for by non-Irish nationals.
Given the higher proportion of non-Irish nationals in the active age groups, their labour force participation rate in 2006 was 75.7 per cent, well ahead of the corresponding figure for Irish nationals aged 15 years and over which was 60.9 per cent.
The hotels and restaurants sector accounted for the highest proportion of non- Irish national workers in 2006, with 31.9 per cent; followed by business activities, with 16.2 per cent; with manufacturing at 15.2 per cent and construction at 14.2 per cent.
Female participation in the labour force reached a peak of 52.8 per cent in 2006, with over half the increase coming in the last 10 years.
The CSO said the male participation rate peaked at 87.4 per cent in 1946 and fell steadily downwards to reach a low point of 69.9 per cent in 2002.
But a turn-around to 72.3 per cent in 2006 was due to participation rate increases of Irish national males aged 30 years and over and males aged 25-44 years from the 10 EU Member States that acceded on May 1st, 2004, the CSO said.
At the overall State level, the unemployment rate for urban areas was 9.5 per cent in 2006 compared with 6.9 per cent for rural areas.
