Employment in construction sector increases by nearly 30,000 in the past year

Economic sector which saw the largest increase in employment was construction, which rose by 29,600 people, or 18.4%, over the past year, CSO data shows

The construction sector saw an additional one million hours worked when compared to the same period in 2024.

The number of people working in construction has surged 18.4% over the past year as the tech-dominated information and communication sector saw a decline in headcount, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.

According to the latest labour force survey for the period April to June this year, the total number of people aged between 15 and 89 who are employed in the State increased by 63,900 to close to 2.82 million in the 12 months to the end of June.

The employment rate for people aged between 15 and 64 ticked up slightly between April and June to 74.7%, compared to the 74.4% recorded during the same period last year.

During the quarter, there were 140,800 people unemployed aged between 15 and 75, with an associated unemployment rate of 4.8%, up from 4.6% seen during the same period last year.

Youth unemployment, which is considered for those aged 15 to 24, stood at 13.2% in the second quarter, up from 12% year-on-year. The total number of unemployed people in this age group was 49,500.

There were 31,800 people who were unemployed for 12 months or longer, an increase of 4,900.

There are an estimated 582,000 people working part-time, with 153,600 of those classified as under-employed — people who would like to work more hours for more pay.

The estimated total labour force stood at close to 2.96 million between April and June, up 2.5% year-on-year.

The CSO said the economic sector, which saw the largest increase in employment, was construction, which rose by 29,600 people, or 18.4%, over the past year. The sector with the next highest increase was human health and social work activities, which increased by 14,500, or 3.9%.

The largest fall in employment was in the information and communication sector, which includes the major tech companies, down by 7,700, or 4.1%. This fall was driven by a decrease of 16,400 people employed in computer programming, consultancy, and related activities.

On average, the total combined number of hours worked during a week in the quarter increased by 1.6 million hours to 88.9 million hours.

However, the increase in working hours varied across different sectors. The construction sector saw an additional one million hours worked when compared to the same period in 2024. The largest sectoral decreases in hours worked were in the accommodation and food service activities, and the information and communication sectors, which were each down 300,000 hours over the course of the last year.

Chief economist at tax and consulting firm RSM UK and RSM Ireland Thomas Pugh said while the labour market remained strong during the second quarter, “there is now a clear risk” US tariffs on the EU “will derail that strong growth picture”.

“Indeed, the pervasive uncertainty and damage to global growth from tariffs will be a drag on Irish domestic growth over the rest of the year, which will slow employment growth,” he said.