Unemployment rate drops slightly to 4.3% in September

Last month, 124,300 were unemployed across the country which is a drop of 1,000 compared to August and a drop of 3,100 compared to September 2023. 

The national unemployment rate dropped slightly during September by 0.1% to 4.3% with 124,300 out of work, new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.

According to the figures, the youth unemployment rate — those aged 15 to 24 — ticked up slightly month-on-month from 10.7% to 10.8% while employment among all other age groups stood at 3.4%.

Last month, 124,300 were unemployed which is a drop of 1,000 compared to August and a drop of 3,100 compared to September 2023. The number of men unemployed fell to 65,400 while the number of women unemployed fell to 58,900.

Senior economist at hiring platform Indeed Jack Kennedy said the economy’s “ongoing strength continues to support a healthy hiring demand”.

“It comes as Irish job postings on Indeed have gained traction over the past month, growing 6%. As of September 27, the Indeed Job Postings Index for Ireland — a real-time measure of labour market activity — was down 19% from its level one year ago, but remains 19% above its February 1, 2020, pre-pandemic baseline.

“This is up from just over 10% in early August of this year.” 

However, Mr Kennedy said that hiring demand continues to vary across numerous occupational categories “with a continuing decline in professional categories”.

“The five weakest performing are hospitality and tourism, marketing, software development, civil engineering, IT operations and helpdesk,” he said.