Employment growth slows to lowest rate in three years

The professional, scientific, and technical activity sector saw the largest employment increase between January and March this year

Between January and March, the total number of people employed, aged between 15 and 89, in the State grew by 1.9% to just over 2.7 million.

Annual employment growth slowed to the lowest levels in three years with just over 50,000 more people employed during the first three months of the year compared to the same period in 2023, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.

Between January and March, the total number of people employed, aged between 15 and 89, in the State grew by 1.9% to just over 2.7 million. The total estimated labour force — the sum of all persons aged 15-89 years who were either employed or unemployed — stood at 2.82 million during the start of the year, an increase of 55,400.

The unemployment rate during this period stood at 4.1% — a nominal increase from the 4% recorded during the same period last year — which equates to 115,200 people. The youth unemployment rate for those aged between 14 and 24 was 8.8%, an increase of 0.2%.

There were 28,800 people in long-term unemployment — considered 12 months or longer — during the first three months of the year, a year-on-year decrease of 3,400. The total employment rate for persons aged between 15 and 64 was 73.8% between January and March.

The estimated number of people in employment in Q1 2024 stood at 2.7 million, up 1.9% compared with a year agohttps://t.co/8YDyaIfnXs#CSOIreland #Ireland #LabourForceSurvey #LabourForce #Households #Families #LabourMarket #LiveRegister #Jobs #Employment #Unemployment pic.twitter.com/O8nnZhvvQx

— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) May 23, 2024

Statistician with the CSO, Colin Hanley, said there are an estimated 573,400 or 21.2% of those in employment working part-time, and 21.8 % of those in part-time employment were classified as underemployed.

“The age group with the highest employment rate was the 35- to 44-year-old group, 83.9%. The lowest employment rate by age was observed in the 15- to 19-year-old cohort at 26.3%,” he said.

“The largest increase in employment rate was observed in the 25- to 34-year-old group, up 1.5 percentage points to 83.4%.” 

The estimated cumulative number of hours worked during a week decreased by 100,000 hours to 85.4 million hours.

The professional, scientific, and technical activity sector saw the largest increase with 26,300 compared to the same period last year. This was followed by the education sector which increased by 16,900 and the agriculture and fishery sector which increased by 6,500.

The industry sector saw the largest decreases — down 11,200. It was followed by the car and motorcycle retail sector which saw a decrease of 5,400.