Nothing too shocking here (unless you were expecting an even steeper decline) but the latest Eurostat figures show Ireland’s construction sector shrank by nearly 26% at the end of 2008, compared to 2007.
Construction output – annual variation
% change compared with the same quarter / the same month of the previous year*
** Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Ireland -24.4 -26.1 -23.3 -26.7
EA16 -0.2 -3.8 -4.8 -8.1**
It’s also clear from looking at other Eurozone economies that Ireland’s construction crash began earlier than others - again, not news to pinsters.
The second chart (annual variation) in the link below is most telling. Only Spain (-19.7%) and Estonia (-19.8%) come close to Ireland in Q4 '08. The figures confirm that Ireland is, y’know, different. The first chart also shows that each quarter of 2008 was worse than the last - but Ireland’s figures for 2009 are unavailable.
Slovakia and Romania posted double-digit increases in year-on-year construction activity in the last quarter of 2008. Maybe that’s a good place to look for jobs in construction (although the pay is understood to be lower than in Ireland).