As of 2024, Irish nationals accounted for the largest proportion of employments (72.5%), followed by those from the EU excluding Ireland (12.1%) and Other (9.5%), which includes nationalities not individually listed and employments for which a nationality could not be determined. Irish nationals contributed more than three-quarters (75.5%) of the total earnings in 2024, down 1.1 percentage points since 2023. The nationality categories included in the following analysis contributed at least 1.0% to the total earnings across three consecutive years, between 2022 and 2024 (See Table 5.1).
Over the five-year period between 2019 and 2024, the number of employments occupied by Irish nationals increased by 8.0%. There were also increases in the number of employments among the following nationalities: EU excluding Ireland (+11.9%), Romanian (+21.2%), and Indian (+242.9%). During the same period, there was a decrease in the number of employments held by Polish nationals (-5.4%).
In 2024, the largest proportion of employments occupied by Irish workers was in Wholesale & Retail Trade (15.5%), followed by Human Health & Social Work (14.9%), and Industry (10.9%). Similarly, the largest proportion of employments recorded for nationals from the EU excluding Ireland (17.3%) and Poland (21.3%) were also in the Wholesale & Retail Trade sector, while the largest proportion of both UK (15.6%) and Indian (32.2%) nationals were employed in the Human Health & Social Work sector (See Table 5.2).
Irish workers accounted for the majority of employments in each of the economic sectors, ranging from 54.4% in Administrative & Support Services to 94.1% in Public Administration & Defence. Nationals from the EU excluding Ireland represented the second largest proportion of employments across 11 of the 13 economic sectors, with the exception of Accommodation & Food Services and Human Health & Social Work (See Table 5.3).
Please note: The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is the official source of estimates of employment.
Median weekly earnings were highest among Indian nationals in 2024 at €876.04, followed by UK nationals at €780.00. Despite recording the highest median weekly earnings, Indian nationals recorded an annual percentage decrease (-0.9%) in weekly earnings, in contrast to the increase of 7.1% in weekly earnings recorded among Romanian nationals. It is possible that the decrease in median weekly earnings among Indian nationals was linked to the decrease in the proportion of employments among Indian nationals in Information & Communication (-2.1 percentage points), Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities (-0.8 percentage points), and Financial, Insurance & Real Estate (-0.3 percentage points) since 2023 as these are typically high earning economic sectors (See Table 5.2).
The mean weekly earnings among Indian nationals did not reflect a similar decrease but rather recorded an increase of 1.7% from €1,023.42 in 2023 to €1,041.07 in 2024. In contrast, mean weekly earnings among Polish and Romanian nationals increased by 7.1% and 6.6% respectively, while mean weekly earnings among Irish nationals recorded an annual increase of 5.4%, from €915.74 in 2023 to €965.54 in 2024 (See Table 5.4).
In general, median weekly earnings among males were higher than those of females. Employments among UK males recorded the highest median weekly earnings in 2024, at €897.54, up 4.4% on the equivalent figure in 2023 (€859.73), and 38.9% higher than the median weekly earnings recorded for employments among UK females (€646.01). Similarly, employments among Irish males (€848.88) had median weekly earnings 25.4% higher than those among Irish females (€677.02) in 2024. Of the nationalities individually listed in this analysis, Indian nationals were the only cohort in which females (€919.27) recorded higher (11.8%) median weekly earnings compared with their male (€821.96) counterparts (See Figure 5.1 and Table 5.5).
| X-axis label | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ireland | 848.88 | 677.02 | 762.72 |
| EU27 excl Ireland | 738.1 | 600.8 | 673.08 |
| United Kingdom | 897.54 | 646.01 | 780 |
| India | 821.96 | 919.27 | 876.04 |
| Poland | 739.52 | 580.22 | 667.94 |
| Romania | 750.1 | 564.16 | 660.07 |
| Other | 653.85 | 555.95 | 610.42 |
| Total | 802.14 | 654.07 | 730.89 |
Indian nationals recorded the highest median weekly earnings in five of the 13 economic sectors in 2024 including Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities (€1,049.13) and Industry (€993.05), while the highest median weekly earnings were recorded among Irish nationals in a further three economic sectors, of which employments in Public Administration & Defence had the highest weekly earnings at €1,006.37.
Median weekly earnings were highest in the Information & Communication sector among all nationalities included individually in this analysis, ranging from €1,184.45 among Polish nationals to €1,539.90 among UK nationals. Among Irish, Indian, and UK nationals the lowest median weekly earnings were recorded for employments in the Accommodation & Food Services sector, while the Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services sector had the lowest weekly earnings among Romanian, Polish, and EU nationals (See Table 5.7).
Variation in median weekly earnings between nationality groups was least in the Transportation & Storage sector, ranging from €683.85 for employments among Romanian nationals to €779.29 among Irish nationals. In contrast, in the Financial, Insurance & Real Estate sector, UK nationals (€1,244.08) earned 80.0% more per week than Romanian nationals (€690.99).
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