Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Income Statistics.
- Domestic income categories and employment numbers 2 speeches
L’Estrange requested income shares and population counts by category; Moore said figures for 1977–78 and 1977 employment status would be circulated, noting that people may receive multiple income types.
Gerald L'Estrange, Seán Moore
- Weekly income increases in industry and farming 3 speeches
L’Estrange asked about 1979 weekly income increases in industry and farming. Moore reported a 15.2% rise in industrial workers’ average weekly earnings from March 1978 to March 1979, but said no comparable agricultural series was available; the Chair then postponed Questions 4 and 5.
Gerald L'Estrange, Seán Moore, Joseph Brennan
asked the Taoiseach if he will give the percentage domestic incomes in the following categories of population for a 12-month period to the latest date: (a) wages and salaries, (b) farmers' incomes, (c) other domestic incomes, (d) industrial profits, and the number of people in each category.
Comment on this
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to circulate in the Official Report, two statements, the first giving the information on incomes requested by the Deputy for 1977 and 1978, in so far as it is available, and the second showing the total number of persons at work in 1977 classified by employment status.
The figures on the numbers at work were obtained from the labour force survey carried out in April-May 1977. It is not possible to state how many people are covered by each income category as some persons are recipients of more than one type of income and, in addition, some of the recipients are not in the labour force. The data on incomes relate to calender years. Corresponding information for later years is not yet available.
Following are the statements:
Percentage distribution of domestic income
†Preliminary.
*Before the adjustments for stock appreciation.
Numbers at work by employment status (thousands).
3.
Comment on this
asked the Taoiseach the average weekly increase in 1979 in the incomes of people (a) in industry and (b) farming.
Comment on this
The data available for the industrial sector relate to the earnings of industrial workers in the transportable goods industries. The increase in average weekly earnings of all industrial workers was 15.2 per cent in the 12-month period from March 1978 to March 1979. The average weekly earnings at March 1979, as published in the "Industrial Inquiries—First and Second Quarters 1979" was £76.64. These are the latest figures available at this time, but results for June 1979 will be published within the next two weeks.
No comparable series exists in respect of agricultural earnings. Information is, however, available for the total income arising in agriculture; this covers wages and salaries of employees and income from self-employment and other trading income as defined in the national accounts. There are a number of difficulties in using the sectoral income estimates to derive average income per head figures but it is provisionally estimated that there was a decrease of about 1 per cent between 1978 and 1979 in the total income arising in agriculture adjusted for the change in the number of persons engaged in farmwork— aggregates which are not strictly comparable in scope and coverage. The average income per person, on this basis, for 1979 was £76.31 per week.
