Key findings

Comparing Q3 to Q4 in 2021:

• The number of active employments rose by 0.8%
• The largest increases in active employments were in the Administrative & support services sector (3.5%) and the Wholesale & retail trade sector (2.2%)
• Average weekly earnings, (including Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) payments where applicable), rose by 3.4% across all employments
• The sectors showing the largest percentage increase in average weekly earnings were the Financial, insurance & real estate activities sector (11.3%), and the Industry and Transportation & Storage sectors (both 9.8%)

Comparing Q4 2020 and Q4 2021:

• The number of active employments increased by 10.2%
• The number of active employments rose in all 13 economic sectors, with the largest rises in the Accommodation & food services sector (38.1%) and the Arts, entertainment, recreation & other service activities sector (18.2%)
• Average weekly earnings decreased by 0.6% across all employments
• Average weekly earnings rose in seven of the 13 economic sectors with the largest rates of increase recorded in the Information & communication sector (5.4%), and the Financial, insurance & real estate activities sector (3.6%)
• For employments that were active in both Q4 2020 and Q4 2021, average weekly earnings rose by 7.3%

 In Q4 2021:

• The EWSS directly supported 13.2% of active employments 
• The proportion of employments supported by the EWSS varied across the sectors, from 66.5% in the Accommodation & food services sector and 38.7% in the Arts, entertainment, recreation & other service activities sector to 0.2% in Public administration & defence
• EWSS payments accounted for 4% of total earnings across all sectors
• In the Accommodation & food services sector 45.6% of total earnings were EWSS payments compared with 19.9% in the Arts, entertainment, recreation & other service activities sector, 9.2% in the Transportation & storage sector and 3.9% in the Construction sector

Note 1: Introduction This bulletin is part of a series of outputs designed to provide high-level supplementary labour market analysis to users alongside the standard labour market outputs and metrics. The data used is sourced from administrative datasets, namely Revenue's employee level tax data (PMOD), which includes information in relation to the EWSS, as well as data provided from Revenue in relation to the TWSS. This bulletin is specifically designed to complement the standard Earnings & Labour Costs (ELC) results for Q4 2021. The analysis in this bulletin relates to those employees working in enterprises with three or more employees in the NACE Rev 2 (see background notes) Industrial Sectors B–S inclusive. Please Note: The data included in this bulletin are subject to revision as more information relating to employments and earnings are lodged by employers with the Revenue Commissioners and the data is subsequently made available to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) for statistical analysis purposes.

Percentage change in employment 

The number of active employments rose by 0.8% between Q3 and Q4 2021, with increases in nine of the 13 economic sectors. The largest rises were in the Administrative & support services sector (3.5%) and the Wholesale & retail trade sector (2.2%).

The number of active employments rose by 10.2% in the period from Q4 2020 to Q4 2021.  A quarterly decrease in active employments of 6.6% in Q1 2021, was followed by increases of 7.8%, 8.6% and 0.8% in Q2, Q3 and Q4, respectively. 

The number of active employments increased in all 13 economic sectors between Q4 2020 and Q4 2021. The largest increases were recorded in the Accommodation & food services sector (38.1%) and the Arts, entertainment, recreation & other service activities sector (18.2%). See Table 1 and Figures 1 and 2.

Note: An active employment is one that was active at any point in the quarter, not active throughout the quarter.

Note 2: Earnings When considering the change in earnings, it should be noted that there may be a compositional effect due to the significant changes in the number of active employments in certain sectors. The composition of the labour market in Q4 2021 was very different to the composition of the labour market in previous quarters, with significant changes in the number of employments in certain sectors across the various quarters analysed in this Bulletin. The changes in average weekly earnings in any sector may be impacted to some degree by those employments that have left/joined the sector having lower/higher average earnings than those employments that remained in the sector in quarters being analysed. Any payments related to the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) scheme are not included in this analysis. Such payments are paid by the Department of Social Protection (DSP) to a person who has lost income from employment and where no attachment in the form of an employment contract is maintained between the employer and employee. Payments related to the TWSS and EWSS have been included in earnings for this analysis. Earnings included in this analysis are gross earnings, before deductions such as income tax, and include any taxable benefit in kind.

Percentage change in earnings

Between the third and fourth quarters of 2021, average weekly earnings increased by 3.4% across all employments.

Earnings increased in 10 of the 13 economic sectors.  The largest rise was in the Financial, insurance & real estate activities sector (11.3%) followed by the Industry sector and the Transportation & storage sector (both 9.8%).

Comparing Q4 2020 and Q4 2021, average weekly earnings decreased by 0.6% across all employments. A quarterly increase of 5.2% in Q1 2021 was followed by decreases of 4.2% and 4.5% in Q2 and Q3, respectively, and an increase of 3.4% in Q4 2021.

Average weekly earnings fell in six of the 13 economic sectors between Q4 2020 and Q4 2021. The largest rates of decrease were recorded in the Professional, scientific & technical sector (-7.2%), the Arts, entertainment, recreation & other service activities sector (-2.9%) and the Education sector (-2.7%). See Table 2 and Figures 3 and 4. 

Percentage change in earnings for employments active in more than one quarter

An analysis of earnings for employments that were active in more than one quarter is shown below, which takes into consideration the compositional effect mentioned in Note 2 above. A matched dataset was created of all employments that were active in both quarters for each set of quarters analysed.

For employments that were active in both Q3 2021 and Q4 2021, average weekly earnings increased by 6.1%. Average weekly earnings increased in 12 of the 13 economic sectors between Q3 2021 and Q4 2021. The largest rates of increase were recorded in the Financial, insurance & real estate activities sector (12.5%) and in Industry (11.2%). The only sector to record a decrease was the Accommodation & food services sector (-2.3%). 

For employments that were active in both Q4 2020 and Q4 2021, average weekly earnings increased by 7.3%. Average weekly earnings rose in all 13 economic sectors between Q4 2020 and Q4 2021. The largest rates of increase were recorded in the Accommodation & food services sector (16.6%), the Transportation & storage sector (16.1%) and the Information & communication sector (15.6%). See Table 3 and Figures 5 and 6.

Impact of Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme

In the fourth quarter of 2021 the EWSS directly supported 13.2 % of active employments. 

The sectors with the highest proportion of employments supported by this scheme were the Accommodation & food services sector (66.5%), the Arts, entertainment, recreation & other service activities sector (38.7%), and the Transportation & storage sector (23.4%).

The proportion of employments supported by the EWSS decreased between the third and fourth quarters of 2021 from 15.9% to 13.2%. All sectors had decreases in the proportion of employments supported by the EWSS, including falls from 74.7% to 66.5% in the Accommodation & food services activities sector, from 18.7% to 11.4% in the Construction sector and from 45.7% to 38.7% in the Arts, entertainment, recreation & other service activities sector.

EWSS payments accounted for 4% of total earnings in all sectors in Q4 2021. The sectors where EWSS payments represented the highest proportion of total earnings were Accommodation & food services (45.6%) and Arts, entertainment, recreation & other service activities (19.9%).

Background Notes

Earnings & Labour Costs (ELC)

The ELC, which is being published today with Preliminary results for Q4 2021 and Final results for Q3 2021, is the official source of short-term earnings and labour cost estimates for Ireland. The ELC release is published based on data collected by the Earnings, Hours and Employment Costs Survey (EHECS). The EHECS collects data from enterprises with three or more employees in the NACE Rev 2 Industrial Sectors B–S inclusive.

Preliminary ELC estimates for Q4 2021 have been negatively impacted by lower than usual response rates and the difficulties faced by enterprises in accessing and sending us the required data. The sectors particularly impacted by low rates of survey response were Construction, Transportation & storage, and Accommodation & food services sectors. Caution is therefore advised in relation to the preliminary estimates published today. Please see the Technical Note – Impact of COVID-19 on the Earnings and Labour Costs release - updated Quarter 4 2021 for more information.

There are methodological differences in the calculation of weekly earnings between the ELC release and the Labour Market Insight Bulletin Series.

The ELC is based on survey data which collects aggregated information from enterprises and presents information separately in relation to both earnings (wages and salaries) and other labour costs (other costs to the employer, in addition to wages and salaries, of employing labour which includes social contributions, expenses, subsidies, benefits in kind). The analysis included in this Bulletin is based on Revenue’s employee level tax data and data provided by Revenue in relation to the TWSS. Earnings estimates provided in this Bulletin include earnings and taxable benefits in kind.

In the ELC average weekly earnings are calculated by dividing the total earnings for the quarter by the average number of persons employed during the quarter and then dividing that by 13 (the number of weeks in a quarter). Average weekly earnings in this Bulletin are calculated by summing the total payments received by an employee in a quarter and dividing by the number of insurable weeks worked by the employee in that quarter.

Labour Force Survey (LFS)

The LFS, which was published on 17 February 2022 for Q4 2021, is the official source of employment estimates for Ireland. The CSO is obliged to follow specific methodology for the LFS including how a person is classified as employed, unemployed or economically inactive (not in the labour force) using the International Labour Organisation concepts and definitions. The International Labour Organisation criteria do not fully capture the impact of COVID-19 on the labour market – see Information Note on the implications of COVID-19 on the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The Information Note highlights the challenges in the application of the ILO concepts following the introduction of the COVID-19 income support payments.

Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme

Revenue’s Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) enabled employees, whose employers were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, to receive supports directly from their employer through the payroll system. The scheme operated in two phases, a transitional phase from 26 March to 03 May and an operational phase from 04 May to 31 August 2020.

Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme

Revenue’s Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) replaced the TWSS and became operational from 01 September 2020. The EWSS is an economy-wide enterprise support that focuses primarily on business eligibility. The scheme provides a flat-rate subsidy to qualifying employers based on the numbers of eligible employees on the employer’s payroll and gross pay to employees.

COVID-19 income support schemes

The CSO has been working with, and will continue to collaborate with both the Department of Social Protection (DSP) and the Revenue Commissioners to meet user needs for availability of detailed aggregates for the recipients of the PUP, TWSS and EWSS. Tables providing breakdowns of the numbers benefitting from the PUP, EWSS, TWSS and the numbers of persons on the Live Register for each week since March 2020 by sex, age group, county and nationality grouping are available at the following link: PxStat. This link also contains tables for the corresponding numbers included on the Live Register for each week as well as a total number of persons with overlaps removed who are either on the Live Register for each week or who were benefitting from either the PUP, the TWSS or the EWSS. An overlap table excluding the Live Register is also available. For further information on updates please see Detailed COVID-19 Income Support and Live Register Tables.

The final update to the number of persons benefitting from the TWSS is included in the PxStat tables linked above. No further TWSS updates will be provided given that the TWSS scheme is now closed. 

NACE Classification

NACE Rev.2 is the latest classification system for economic activities. See NaceCoder.

For further COVID-19 related information go to the CSO COVID-19 Information Hub

Please Note: The Labour Market and Earnings Division of the CSO is compiling a list of users who have registered to be kept informed in relation to relevant announcements from the CSO relating to Labour Market and Earnings, including publication plans from the Division. If you haven't already done so you can register your email address by sending an email to labour@cso.ie asking to be included on this user list.