Monday 18 January 2010

Equality Commission Monitoring Report for 2008

Every year the Equality Commission publishes a Monitoring Report on the Northern Ireland workforce showing the proportions of Protestants and Catholics employed in most major public and private sector organisations. For 2008, Monitoring Report N° 19 was published on 8 December 2009.

The Monitoring Report looks at the 'monitored workforce', which comprises all public sector employers and private sector concerns with 11 or more employees. It thereby included, in 2008, 529,857 employees (of whom 447,654 full-time, and 82,203 part-time).

The Report contains a wealth of fascinating detail about the composition and evolution of the Northern Irish workforce in terms of community background. The Report breaks down its data by community background, gender, full or part-time nature, Standard Occupational categories, public or private employment, and so on. The quantity of data contained in the Report is too great to discuss fully in a single blog entry, so this blog will limit itself to a number of key details:

Overall, for all employees (full or part-time)
- The total monitored workforce now stands at 529,857 employees, a rise of 0.7% or 3,646 since 2007.
- In 2008, the overall composition of those for whom a community could be determined was 54.8% Protestant and 45.2% Catholic.
- Total Protestant employment fell by 1,808 (0.7%) during the year, while the Catholic count increased by 4,495 (2.1%). As a result, the Catholic share rose from 44.6% to 45.2%.

In the private sector, for all employees (full or part-time)
- The total private sector workforce now stands at 339,904 employees, an increase of 5,712 employees (1.7%) since 2007.
- The composition was 54.8% Protestant and 45.2% Catholic.
- Total Catholic private sector employment increased by 3,846 employees (2.8%) during the year, while the Protestant count grew by 644 (0.4%). As a result, the Protestant share of the private sector fell from 55.4% in 2007 to 54.8% in 2008.

And in the public sector, for all employees (full or part-time)
- The total public sector workforce now stands at 189,953 employees, a fall of 2,066 employees (1.1%) since 2007.
- The composition was 54.6% Protestant and 45.4% Catholic.
-Total Protestant public sector employment fell by 2.4% or 2,452 employees during the year, while the Catholic count increased by 649 (0.8%). As a result, the Catholic share of the public sector rose from 44.6% in 2007 to 45.4% in 2008.


Within these totals there can be more mixed figures – for example, while the overall Protestant share in the private sector dropped, the Protestant share amongst part-timers in the private sector rose slightly. But the overall picture remains one of Catholic advance and Protestant retreat.

Some of the clearest and most striking sections are the graphs that show the evolution over the period from 2001 to 2008. For example, the evolution of the entire monitored workforce over the period:



The graph above, showing the evolution of the whole monitored workforce, clearly shows that Catholics are steadily increasing their share of the workforce. The graph below shows how this is happening. As a proportion of job applicants, Catholics have now caught up with Protestants:


This reflects the increasing proportion of Northern Ireland's young people who are from the Catholic community. In addition to those shown in the graph above, the community background of another 15% of applicants was 'non-determined'. No assumptions can be made about these people, of course, but given the generations of discrimination that Catholics have endured, it would not be unlikely that Catholic applicants would disguise their community origins more often than Protestant applicants.

2008 was, of course, an unusual year, with the economic crisis starting to affect the workforce and in particular the numbers of jobs available and the numbers of applicants for these. Yet the numbers in the monitored workforce actually increased overall in 2008, and the workforce peaked in October 2008. The Monitoring Report for 2009 – to be published in December 2010 – will provide an interesting insight into how the recession has influenced the community breakdown of Northern Ireland's workforce. However, even if the recession causes some unusual figures, the evolution over the long-term seems to be constant and consistent with a growing Catholic share of the population. As Protestants form a large majority of those at older ages, especially those coming to retirement age, the 'greening' of the workforce is due to continue for the foreseeable future.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

"No assumptions can be made about these people, of course, but given the generations of discrimination that Catholics have endured, it would not be unlikely that Catholic applicants would disguise their community origins more often than Protestant applicants."

Bull. Get out of the sixties mate. The Beatles broke up.

bangordub said...

As someone involved in recruitment I can assure you that the primary consideration on applications is where best advantage lies in getting the job as regards designation.
Unless there are are an amazing number of catholics attending state schools

Anonymous said...

What I can't stand is when foreigners come into The UK and take local people's jobs in places like Bangor in NI.

bangordub said...

Haha,
Welcome back Watcher/ Andy
Missed you!

bangordub said...

Ps.
Bangor is in my country. ie:Ireland.
It always has been, for quite a long time. I'm quite happy to educate you as to it's history.
As to those residents who regards themselves as British, I completely respect that. It's not up to me to inflict nationality upon them.

Anonymous said...

Yay Andy's back!

Keep it coming looney tunes.

Anonymous said...

bangordub said:

"Bangor is in my country. ie:Ireland.
It always has been, for quite a long time. I'm quite happy to educate you as to it's history.
As to those residents who regards themselves as British, I completely respect that. It's not up to me to inflict nationality upon them."

It's not a history lesson you need, it's a geography lesson. The ROI and The UK are two different states with internationally recognised borders. If you move from The ROI to The UK you will indeed be a foreigner living in The UK. Simple isn't it?

FFS

Anonymous said...

So simple?

I wonder why the grave yards of Ireland are full of people who exited this world prematurely in the name of nationality!

Come the day when we are all Irish living in harmony on our shared island.

MPG .....

Anonymous said...

Yawn.

Anonymous said...

> What I can't stand is when foreigners come into The UK and take local people's jobs in places like Bangor in NI.

Well, just stay sitting down.

Claims that migrants "take our jobs" and "cut our pay" are misplaced and wrong, according to research published today by the Institute for Public Policy Research. Source:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/26/immigration-eastern-europe-jobs

So, don't let the facts get in the way of your prejudices. The minority who suffer are the laziest, least qualified, and the most unwilling to work.

In any case, as this blog has documented, the south's workforce is better educated. Irish people don't compete with the unskilled.

..analysis of the UK’s Companies House records shows the Irish are now the most numerous of any foreigners in Britain’s boardrooms.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2010/0109/1224261978986.html

and that's not counting those from N.I. who count themselves Irish.

Anonymous said...

Ha!

Love this blog!

Anonymous said...

Horseman, I asked this on a previous post but didn't get a chance to check for an answer, anyway yhe question was are there any historical figures for migration from NI by religion, you would presume emigration from the RC community would be higher because of job discrimination.

Anonymous said...

Not really, most of them preferred lieing around on the dole scrounging of The UK State they claimed to despise and breeding like rats under the instruction of Irish Priests who needed a steady supply of small boys to molest.

I hope that helps.