The number of people in employment rises by 12.3%

Irish economy adds 275,200 jobs in the first quarter, showed figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today.

The employment rate for people aged between 15 and 64 rose to 72.8% in the first quarter of this year, up from 65.6% during the same period last year. Picture: Leah Farrell 

The Irish workforce increased by 12.3% in the first quarter, with the total number of people in employment surpassing 2.5m.

The number of people in employment increased by 275,200, showed figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today.

The employment rate for people aged between 15 and 64 rose to 72.8% in the first quarter of this year, up from 65.6% during the same period last year.

In the year to the end of the first quarter, the number of hours worked per week increased by 17.6%, which corresponds to an additional 12.1m hours. Such an increase brought the number of hours worked per week to a record high of 80.8 million.

The number of persons in employment increased by 12.3% to 2,505,800 in the year to Q1 2022https://t.co/y492VMwDHV #CSOIreland #Ireland #LabourForceSurvey #LabourForce #IrishFamilies #IrishHouseholds #LabourMarket #LiveRegister #Jobs #Employment #Unemployment pic.twitter.com/0p5hY7kAfM

— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) May 26, 2022

Employment increased for most sectors throughout the economy. The accommodation and food service industry recorded the largest increase in employment with an additional 62.2% or 62,400 people employed. Employment in the sector currently stands at 162,400, below the 2020 first quarter level of 169,500. 

Commenting on today’s figures, Sam Scriven, Statistician, said: “The number of hours worked per week was higher than a year ago in almost all sectors in Q1 2022. The hours worked per week in the accommodation & food services sector, while still below Q1 2020 levels, increased by 2.6 million hours per week (+152.9%) over the year to Q1 2022."

The number of absences from work (temporary layoffs from work, family leave and holidays) during the reference week in the first quarter fell to 168,100, a year on year decrease of 45.7%. This is the lowest level of absences since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The number of people aged between 15 and 74 who were unemployed in the first quarter of this year was 126,700, giving an associated unemployment rate of 4.8%.

Speaking about changes to the size of the labour force Scriven said: "The number of persons not in the labour force in Q1 2022 was 1,431,000 which was down 10.8% or 172,400 from a year earlier.”