The construction sector bore the brunt of the employment loss from the economic and financial crisis that began in 2008. Almost one in every two workers who lost their jobs in Ireland in the five years from 2007 to 2012 had previously been employed in construction. While there has been a modest rise in construction employment since 2012, the number at work in the sector as of Q2 2017 was 110,000, or 46 per cent, lower than in 2007.
This raises the question: where are the construction workers who lost their jobs during the property crash? We find no evidence of the existence of a significant number of either unemployed or inactive former construction workers as of early 2017. Instead, while we cannot be definitive on the magnitude, our results point to a high rate of outward migration among unemployed construction workers during the 2008-2012 period.
This has implications for the recovery in the construction sector, with inward migration likely to play an important role in meeting the demand for labour in the sector as housing output picks up.
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