The labor market in Ireland, 2000–2018

In the early 2000s, Irish growth was fueled by a property, credit, and construction boom. The global financial crisis in 2008 shattered this growth model. Between 2007 and 2012, the unemployment rate soared from 5.0% to 15.5%, despite outward migration helping to moderate some of the impact. Recovery has been underway since 2013, but uncertainty about the sources of future labor supply remains a salient issue. Migration could offer a means of alleviating growing labor supply concerns. Furthermore, Brexit represents a major risk to the economy with likely uneven impacts across the labor market.