Housing was the strongest performing sector of the construction industry last month.

The latest report from Ulster Bank also reveals that November saw the sharpest rise in employment since February.

It comes as the Construction Industry Federation estimates that 112,000 employees are needed to work on projects up to 2020.

Ulster Bank’s Chief Economist Simon Barry says the November report shows that activity is buoyant:”Housing activity accelerated in October, it’s now running at a faster rate than other area’s of construction.

“And the housing rate itself is growing at the fastest rate in seven months, we know that we need more housing activity in the irish economy, at the moment and November is telling us that there certainly is a pretty rapid rate of increase in housing activity so certainly so the housing element offers us a degree of encouragement.”