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Number of people working for multinationals hits highest ever level – IDA Ireland
32,426 new jobs were created by multinational companies with operations in Ireland over the past year, despite difficult economic conditions globally – the highest level of annual growth ever.
When jobs lost during the same period are taken into account, the net number of new foreign direct investment related roles added over the last 12 months totalled 24,019.
This is according to IDA Ireland as it launched its annual results for 2022 today.
It means there are now a total of 301,475 people working for foreign multinationals here, up 9% on last year.
This is the highest level on record and the first time that the 300,000 mark has been breached.
“The challenging and volatile international environment that we saw in 2021 escalated this year,” said Mary Buckley, interim chief executive at IDA Ireland.
“In light of that, these annual results are most encouraging and show that investors’ commitment to Ireland remains strong and Ireland’s value proposition as a place to do business remains a compelling one,” Ms Buckley said.
242 individual investments were won over the period, with 103 of those first time investors in Ireland.
Just over half – some 127 – of the investments went to regional locations.
All regions benefited, with the mid-east recording the highest level of increase, up 13.1%.
In the midlands, FDI employment rose 10.5%, and the same in Dublin.
In sectoral terms, both information and communication services and business, financial and other services rose 9%.
Modern manufacturing increased 8% and traditional manufacturing by 5.6%.
Some of the biggest announcements over the year included a further €12 billion investment by Intel in its campus in Kildare, plans by Apple for a new building in Cork and TikiTok’s promise to create 1,000 new roles.
The job numbers released today do not, however, include the impact of recent job losses in the tech sector as the IDA’s employment survey was completed at the end of October, before some of those announcements were made,
Despite the worsening global economic outlook, the IDA said the pipeline for the first half of next year remains positive.
However, it has warned that for the second 6 months of 2023 the outlook is more uncertain.
It said it continued to monitor the situation in the global tech sector and is actively engaging with tech investors here.
“Ireland has not been immune to the challenges created by global events of recent months and we expect those to continue into 2023,” Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar said.
“However, these figures show that Ireland continues to be seen as a location of choice for new investors and long-established companies who chose to reinvest in substantial expansions of their operations here,” he said.
“While I am concerned about the job losses in tech, there is a good pipeline of new investments coming from the multinationals and Irish-owned corporations in a range of sectors including life sciences, food and beverages, manufacturing and aviation,” Mr Varadkar said.
“We expect many positive announcements in the coming months,” he added.
Mary Buckley said the severe headwinds facing the global economy next year means people will have to work harder than ever to win new investment.
“Our FDI base of companies are also subject to these headwinds,” she said.
“IDA will remain close to our clients at this time of uncertainty and support them as companies review their global cost base to remain competitive,” she stated.
“A focus on transformation is more important than ever if companies are to remain competitive amid an accelerating shift towards a low carbon and high tech economy,” she added.
But Ms Buckley also said that to remain successful in the years ahead issues such as housing, energy, water, planning and infrastructure also need to be addressed more rapidly.
It come as as a survey found that spending by foreign direct investment companies here last year rose, with payroll up 9.8% to €19.6 billion.
Spending on Irish services and materials jumped 10% to €11.1 billion, while capital expenditure was 8% higher at €9.2 billion.
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