In years 1987-97 the Irish economic experienced growth in GDP amounting to 79%, which gave rise to increases in employment, and in the 1990s, to decrease in unemployment. Unemployment today stands at 3.9 % and long-term unemployment stands at 1.4 %( it is over 24 000 people who are more than 12 months unemployed. (See Table 2.3, shows trends in numbers at work, unemployed, and the labour force, as well as net migration over the years 1987-1998.(1))

Three crucial periods in 1987-1998

In years 1987 – 1990 Ireland’s economy experienced recovery. This period is characteristic with strong growth in investment and exports and curtailment of public spending. These instruments can be considered as good keys to transformation in (un)employment policy. In the labour market, employment increased 4% and unemployment fell to 13%. In years 1991–1993 there was only slow growth. In this period Europe experienced downturn in international activity, this influenced increase in increases in interest rates and an exchange rate crisis, also the growth of Ireland’s economy was tackled with negatively growth. In Ireland this led to fall of employment in 1991 and 1992, and with rapid growth in the labour force, to increased unemployment, which was almost 17 % in 1993. In period 1993-1998, very rapid growth. The Irish economy has expanded very rapidly since 1993, annual rates of growth were average 8%. It was also stimulated by both accelerated export growth and by increased domestic demand. These growth rates have given rise to a improvement in labour market conditions. Total employment grew by 25%( over 290,000 people). In the spring1998 the employment rate had declined to 7.8%, which was below the European average and it was lower than at any time in the last twenty years. Emigration has fluctuated in accordance with demand in both domestic and external labour markets. It rose dramatically in the late eighties and was the highest in 1989, when net emigration (in-migration minus out-migration) rose to 3.5% (almost 44,000 individuals) of the labour force. Net emigration had falling tendention, and in 1998 in-migration exceeded out-migration by about 22,000. Comparison with the period of 1998-2002.

Ireland’s economy grew rapidly in this period (the GDP have risen by 10.7%). Several factors contributed to this development. These included the growth of international economy, weak Euro (introduced in the January 2002), rising investment. High employment, increasing earnings, tax cuts and low interest rates stimulated the consumption. The demand for labour has been increased through due to these developments.