Construction: A National Accounts Perspective 2024

Labour productivity is a key economic indicator which measures output relative to labour inputs. This chapter provides an analysis of productivity in the Construction sector, broken out into its sub-sectors Construction of Buildings, Civil Engineering and Specialised Construction Activities. 

Labour productivity is calculated as output per hour worked, where output is measured as Gross Value Added (GVA) in constant prices¹. Importantly, changes in labour productivity for a sector can be explained by factors other than hours worked, such as the level of capital available to labour. For further productivity statistics on the Irish economy, see Productivity in Ireland 2022 - 2023.

Figure 3.1 below shows labour productivity in 2024 for the total Construction sector and its sub-sectors. Labour productivity for the Construction sector was €43.5 per hour in 2024. Looking at the sub-sectors separately, Labour productivity stood at €35.5 per hour in Construction of Buildings, €33.4 per hour in Civil Engineering, and €53.9 per hour in Specialised Construction Activities in 2024.

¹ GVA values presented in this chapter are chain-linked constant prices and referenced to year 2023 except in Figure 3.6, where GVA is measured in previous year prices for international comparability. For the purpose of this release, chain-linked GVA values have been calculated at the sub-sector level and added to give the values for total Construction. Therefore, these total values will be different to those found in the Annual National Accounts. 

Figure 3.2 below shows labour productivity from 2021 to 2024 across the total Construction sector and its sub-sectors.

In Construction of Buildings, labour productivity declined overall between 2021 to 2024, from €46.4 to €35.5 per hour. Labour productivity in Civil Engineering rose by just over 30% during this period, from €25.7 per hour in 2021, to €33.4 per hour in 2024. In Specialised Construction Activities, labour productivity dropped from €53.3 per hour in 2021 to €43.2 in 2022, before rising to €53.9 per hour in 2024. 

Overall, total Construction labour productivity saw a decline in 2022 to €39.6 per hour, followed by growth in the subsequent two years. In 2024, labour productivity in the total Construction sector stood at €43.5 per hour. 

Figure 3.3 below presents the growth of labour productivity² for the total Construction sector and its sub-sectors from 2022 to 2024.

Labour productivity for Construction declined by 17% in 2022, driven by reductions in Construction of Buildings (-17%) and Specialised Construction Activities (-21.1%). This is associated with hours worked increasing within these sectors at a faster rate than GVA in 2022. Labour productivity remained quite flat in 2022 for Civil Engineering with a growth rate of -0.4%.

In 2023, labour productivity in Construction grew by 8.3%, driven in large part by Specialised Construction Activities (+13.9%) and Civil Engineering (+9.2%). Labour productivity grew more slowly within the Construction of Buildings sector, up 2.1% compared to 2022.

A mixed picture emerged in 2024. For the sector as a whole, Labour Productivity remained relatively flat with growth of 1.2%. Looking at the sub-sectors separately, Construction of Buildings saw labour productivity fall in 2024 (-11.8%), while labour productivity grew in Civil Engineering (+17.5%) and Specialised Construction Activities (+8.3%). 

² Log growth rates are presented here. For more information on log growth rates, see the Background Notes of Productivity in Ireland 2022 - 2023. 

Figure 3.4 illustrates the trends in hours worked within the Construction sector, broken down by sub-sector, from 2011 to 2024.

In 2024, 324.0 million hours of work were estimated for the Construction sector, which represents an increase of 10.4% on the pre-COVID year of 2019, when 293.5 million hours were worked. Hours worked in Construction dipped substantially in 2020 to 234.9 million and recovered slightly to 252.6 million in 2021. The number of hours worked in the sector surpassed pre-pandemic levels for the first time in 2022, with 326.3 million hours worked in Construction that year. 

In the recent past, the peak number of hours worked in Construction were in 2007, when it was estimated that 466 million hours were worked. This dropped to a low of 141.5 million hours in 2012.

In 2024, 44.0% of hours worked in the Construction sector were within the Construction of Buildings sector. A further 45.1% of hours worked in Construction were in Specialised Construction Activities, while the remaining 10.9% were in Civil Engineering.

Figure 3.5 below shows the trends in Gross Value Added (GVA) at constant prices³ for the Construction sector from 2021 to 2024, broken down by sub-sector.

Over half (55.8%) of Gross Value Added in the Construction sector was generated by Specialised Construction Activities in 2024. Over one third (35.9%) of the sector's GVA was generated by the Construction of Buildings. Civil Engineering comprised a smaller share of the total GVA for the sector, at 8.3%. 

For the total Construction sector, GVA rose steadily over the period. In 2021, GVA for the Construction sector stood at €11.8bn. By 2024, GVA for the sector had reached €14.1bn, with general upward trends exhibited by each of the three sub-sectors over the four-year period. 

³ Chain-linked constant prices and referenced to 2023. For more information on chain-linking, see Statistics Explained.

Figure 3.6 below shows total Construction labour productivity across EU countries in 2023⁴. Ireland reported the seventh highest value for labour productivity in the Construction sector among EU member states, ranking above Luxembourg and below Netherlands. Belgium reported the highest value for labour productivity in the Construction sector at €53.3 per hour, while Bulgaria reported the lowest at €8.4 euro per hour. 

Note that Ireland's labour productivity is calculated differently here to the rest of this chapter to ensure international comparability. Labour productivity in Figure 3.6 is calculated using GVA in previous year prices rather than chain-linked GVA. 

⁴ Note that these results present the latest estimates for Ireland using sub-sector specific price indices from CSO Enterprise Statistics. The European comparison is shown for the year 2023 rather than 2024 due to the availability of international productivity statistics.