First of all, the caveats.
The Quarterly Household Survey (QHS) is a sample survey, compiled by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the details of which are outlined in Tuesday’s post which looked at broad occupations.
There are 21 economic sectors in the NACE Rev.2, and for its purposes, the CSO has amalgamated some of these to give 14 economic sectors.
These are:
A. Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
B-E. Industry. This includes the following NACE Rev.2 sectors: B. Mining and Quarrying ; C. Manufacturing ; D. Electricity, Gas, Steam And Air Conditioning Supply ; and E. Water Supply; Sewerage, Waste Management And Remediation Activities.
F. Construction
G. Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles
H. Transport and Storage
I. Accommodation and Food Service Activities
J. Information and Communication
K-L. Financial, Insurance and Real Estate Activities. This includes the following NACE Rev.2 sectors: K. Financial And Insurance Activities ; L. Real Estate Activities
M. Professional, Scientific And Technical Activities
N. Administrative And Support Service Activities
O. Public Administration And Defence; Compulsory Social Security
P. Education
Q. Human Health and Social Work Activities
R-U. Other NACE Activities. This includes the following NACE Rev.2 sectors: R. Arts, Entertainment And Recreation ; S. Other Service Activities ; T. Activities Of Households As Employers; Undifferentiated Goods- And Services-Producing Activities Of Households For Own Use ; U. Activities Of Extraterritorial Organisations And Bodies
There’s one bit of information relating to the agriculture, forestry and fishing which is worth repeating from Tuesday’s post:
And again, to restate, the QHS measures trends in economic and social activity. Its strength lies in its ability to present a reasonably accurate picture of the changes within the workforce at a national level. This is not to say that the numbers are for illustration only - far from it - but they are extrapolations from a sample survey.
Each quarterly survey is a snapshot of the Irish economy, but the underlining motion, the direction, of the economy only comes together when the snapshots are laid out one after the other. Rather like Eadweard Muybridge’s famous clips of horses in motion, the movement can only be seen when comparisons between the snapshots are made.
So with this in mind, what can the QHS Q4 2009 tell us about Ireland’s now lauded model of recovery?
Broad Economic Sectors
The CSO has already flagged the drop in employment in agriculture, forestry and fishing, so putting that to one side for now, the QHS has construction shedding 37% of its Q4 2008 jobs, industry shedding 11% of its jobs, wholesale and retail trade lost 8%, education is down 4%, while finance, the monster at the centre of all of this, is down 2%.
1 in 3 of every job in construction was lost in 2009.
1 in 9 of every job in industry (see above for sector breakdown).
1 in 13 of every job in retail and wholesale trade.
1 in 25 of every job in education.
1 in 50 of every job in financial, insurance and real estate activities.
An estimated 184,000 jobs were lost in 2009, the percentage of losses by sector as a percentage of that 184,000 is as follows:
The lowest percentage of job losses was in the financial sector, which itself had the lowest shrinkage as a sector. (These figures, of course, do not take into account the imminent closures of both the Halifax retail branches and Postbank, which are due to shut down operations in June and September 2010 respectively as part of the government’s ‘leave no friends of Fianna Fáil behind‘ banking sector policy.)
There was some growth recorded by the QHS, most notably in information and communication, which, in terms of employment, grew by about 5.9%.
Again, these figures are estimates, based on extrapolations, but they should give at least a reasonably accurate indication of the trends in employment in 2009.
The figures above appear to concur with the trends in employment as outlined in the QHS occupations tables.
The hardest hit economic sectors have been construction, industry and trade (retail and wholesale), with the state-protected financial services sector suffering a modest drop, and the state-subsidised and grant-aided information and communication sector showing an increase in employment.
[Next post in this series will look at unemployment in Ireland in 2009.]
