Unemployment rate rises marginally as labour market remains tight

The current unemployment rate of 4.3% in August 2022 is lower than the pre-pandemic level of 5.0% recorded in August 2019. Picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

Ireland's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose slightly in August to 4.3%, according to figures released today from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The new figures show that Ireland's labour market continues to remain tight amid a growing cost-of-living crisis and soaring inflation. July's rate of 4.2% was Ireland's lowest unemployment rate in 21 years.

For males the unemployment rate in August remained unchanged from the previous month at 4.1%, this was down from 5.5% in August 2021. Meanwhile, for females, the unemployment rate rose to 4.5%, up from a revised rate of 4.4% in July and down from 5.4% in August 2021.

The youth unemployment rate for those aged 15-24 years rose by 0.5% from the previous month to 11.6% in August. The current unemployment rate of 4.3% in August 2022 is lower than the pre-pandemic level of 5.0% recorded in August 2019.

John Mullane, statistician for the CSO said: "The seasonally adjusted number of persons unemployed was 117,200 in August 2022, compared with 114,300 in July 2022. There was a decrease of 23,500 in the seasonally adjusted number of persons unemployed from a year earlier."

"The seasonally adjusted number of males unemployed was 59,100 in August 2022, compared with 58,700 in July 2022. For August 2022 the seasonally adjusted number of females unemployed was 58,100, compared with 55,600 in July 2022," he added.

Last week, figures revealed that the number of people employed in Ireland has risen to a new high of 2.55 million.

The CSO’s latest Labour Force Survey showed that the employment rate for those aged 15 to 64 in the second quarter of this year was 73.5%, a 4.9% year-on-year increase.

In total, 2,554,600 people were employed in the State in the second quarter of this year, almost 200,000 more than in 2019. The figure is almost 700,000 higher than it was 10 years ago.