One of the key areas of impact which has been measured in the Sport Ireland ‘Value of Sport’ research project is that of Sport-related employment.
The number of people employed in the sector has climbed from 38,000 to 64,000 and the percentage of the overall employment market that represents is also up from 2.1 per cent to 2.8 per cent.
The estimates in the research undertaken by Sheffield Hallam University are derived from calculations based on wage payments and average weekly
salaries per sector, as reported on the CSO website.
The 2018 level of employment in sport is the highest ever recorded in Ireland, both in absolute terms and relative to sport’s share of total employment.
The high number of jobs in the Public sector can be explained mainly on the grounds of education and administration. The sport educational sector is generally the largest generator of employment across Europe.
The largest sector is the community/non-profit sector, supporting 20,690 jobs or 32 per cent of all sport-related employment in Ireland. The growth here from under 9,000 to more than 20,000 incorporates the greater numbers employed in facilitating the delivery of sport as well as running the sporting facilities that have come on stream through the success of the Sports capital funding programme.
Creating the right level of human capital to leverage that has been an area that was always felt to be important and which is being delivered on, despite the occasional economic downturn.
The economic impact that can be attributed to higher levels of employment, as well as expenditure, is the area we will look at next in this ongoing series.
When comparing the percentage distributions between 2008 and 2018, the shares of the community sector increased substantially from 25% in 2008 to 32% in 2018. Similarly, there has been an increase in the share of the public sector, from 16% in 2008 to 21% in 2018.
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