THERE’S BEEN PLENTY of talk about job creation in recent months, with an economic recovery appearing to take hold in 2014.

Recently Jobs Minister Richard Bruton shared a breakdown of how many jobs have been created and lost in the manufacturing industry from 2009-2013.

In 2009 almost 30,000 jobs were lost, while 7,000 were created. The following year, more than 14,000 jobs were lost and 8,600 were created.

Source: Oireachtas.ie

Speaking in the Dáil, Bruton said there were “very significant net job losses in the manufacturing sector for the years 2009 and 2010, as had also been the case in the previous few years”.

“This negative trend was reversed in 2011 and a positive net position has continued in the last two years,” he added.

In 2013, more than 8,000 jobs were lost but close to 11,000 were created.

Exact figures for 2014 are not available, but this positive trend continued.

Today Investec (a specialist bank and asset manager) announced that staffing levels in the Irish manufacturing sector continued to rise during December 2014, with the rate of growth being the best it has been in 15 years.

In a statement the company said: “Increased capacity requirements to deal with higher demand and expectations of further growth underpinned the rise in staffing levels.”

The rate of growth in new export sales was the best recorded since March 2010.

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