Around a tenth of people working in the Irish construction industry have lost their jobs in the last three months, it has been revealed.

Figures from the Central Statistics Office suggest almost 10% has been wiped off employment levels in the sector within the last quarter.

The CSO's latest Quarterly National Household Survey shows the number of workers decreased by 27,000 in the three months to June 2008.

-- Advertisement --

According to government figures, 160,600 people are now officially out of work.

Over the past three months, Ireland's official unemployment rate has jumped from 5.4% to 6.3%.

The number of men unemployed increased by 58.3%, around 37,400, during the third quarter.

An estimated 16,000 women lost their jobs in the same period, which represented a 37.1% growth.

In the last year around 25,900 construction jobs have been lost, knocking 9.1% off employment figures in the industry.

However, the survey also shows that Ireland’s unemployment rate of 5.2% continues to below the EU average of 6.8%.

(PR)