Those with poor English twice as likely to be unemployed

PEOPLE with poor levels of English are twice as likely to be unemployed compared with the national average, Census 2016 reveals.

More than 470,500 people aged 15 and over spoke a language other than English or Irish at home in April 2016, and of these 84pc indicated they had good or very good English.

The unemployment rate among this group was 13.3pc.

But those whose English ability was in the category of ‘not well’ or ‘not at all’ had a much higher unemployment rate of 25.6pc. The national unemployment rate was 12.9pc.

Almost 34,000 people who were not proficient in English were working, with more than 4,000 (11.9pc) employed as cleaners. Nearly one in 10 work in restaurants.

The data also reveals that non-Irish national women from outside the EU are far less likely to participate in the labour force compared with those from EU countries.

Census 2016 shows that of

347,233 non-Irish nationals in the labour force in April

2016, participation rates among EU males was 82.8pc as opposed to 70.9pc for females. For those from outside the EU, the male participation rate was 71.8pc, compared with 56.5pc for women.

“The largest difference between the male and female participation rates was among Pakistani households where the male participation rate was 81.3pc, with 41.2pc for females,” the CSO said.

The CSO also reveals that in the year prior to April

2016, 82,346 persons arrived to live in Ireland, of which

24,768 were Irish nationals and 47,651 non-Irish nationals.

The unemployment rate for all recent immigrants was

20pc, with large variations ranging from 30pc among Brazilians and 4.5pc among Germans. In many cases, recent arrivals are students including 2,370 Brazilians,

53pc of the total who arrived in the year prior to April

2016.

Of almost 5,000 recent immigrants working in the accommodation and food service sector, 4,070 were non-Irish. Of the 4,300 in the information and communication sector, some

77pc were non-Irish.