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Employments among new entrants accounted for 8.9% of the total employments in 2023, down from 10.7% in 2022.
Irish nationals accounted for the largest proportion of new entrants in 2023 at 43.5%, followed by Indian (8.3%) and Brazilian (5.2%) nationals.
Of the new Irish national entrants to employment in 2023, more than half were aged 15-24 years (61.0%). Irish nationals were the only nationality cohort where the proportion of new entrants aged 15-24 years was larger than the proportion aged 25-64 years.
The Accommodation & Food Services sector recorded the largest proportion of new entrant employments in 2023, at 22.5%. This compares with the Public Administration & Defence sector in which 1.8% of employments in the sector were represented by new entrants.
In 2023, median weekly earnings among new entrant employments stood at €403.08, up 3.8% on the previous year (€388.50). This compares with an increase of 4.2% in median weekly earnings across total employments.
Human Health & Social Work was the only economic sector in which new entrant employments among females (€563.74) had higher median weekly earnings compared with their male counterparts (€511.40).
Despite recording the highest median weekly earnings in 2023 (€994.12), Information & Communication was the only economic sector to indicate a decline in earnings among new entrant employments (-19.5%) between 2022 and 2023.
The following analysis is based on the annual dataset created for the Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources (EAADS) release. The EAADS release presents earnings statistics compiled based on administrative data sources. The primary data source is the Revenue Commissioner’s employee tax data (PMOD), which was introduced in 2019. This is linked to the CSO Business Register and other data to provide economic and demographic breakdowns of employee earnings in Ireland.
The term new entrants used throughout this publication refers to individuals who were present on the annual EAADS dataset for the first time during a reference year. For example, new entrants in 2022 refers to individuals who were present on the 2022 annual file, but did not appear on EAADS in 2019, 2020 or 2021. Similarly, new entrants in 2023 were present on the 2023 annual file, but did not appear on EAADS in 2019, 2020, 2021 or 2022. New entrant employments refer to employments among individuals considered to be new entrants in a reference year. It is important to note that individuals may have more than one employment, and that secondary employments earning at least €4,000 per annum are included in the analysis.
In 2023, employments among new entrants accounted for 8.9% of the total employments, down from 10.7% in 2022. Of the new entrants in 2023, 52.0% were male and 48.0% were female.
Those aged 15-24 years accounted for the largest proportion (39.0%) of new entrants in 2023, followed by those aged 30-39 years (22.9%), and 25-29 years (15.4%) (See Table NELMA01).
In terms of nationality, Irish nationals accounted for the largest proportion of new entrants in 2023 at 43.5%, followed by Indian (8.3%) and Brazilian (5.2%) nationals. The proportion of new entrants represented by Irish nationals decreased by 4.8 percentage points, compared with the year previous (48.3%) (See Table NELMA02). Of the new entrants of Irish nationality in 2023, over half were aged 15-24 years (61.0%). In contrast, among each of the other nationalities presented in Table 1.2, the majority of new entrants were part of the general workforce (aged 25-64 years).
As noted above, employments among new entrants accounted for 8.9% of the total employments in 2023. The Accommodation & Food Services sector recorded the largest proportion of new entrant employments in 2023, at 22.5%, followed by Administrative & Support Services (13.1%) and Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services (12.3%). In contrast, 1.8% of employments in the Public Administration & Defence sector were represented by new entrants (See Table NELMA06).
In terms of employments exclusive to new entrants, the largest proportion were in the Accommodation & Food Services sector (22.3%), followed by the Wholesale & Retail Trade (18.8%) and Human Health & Social Work (11.7%) sectors.
The age profile of new entrants had an impact on the economic sector in which they were employed, as presented in Figure 3. A larger proportion of employments among new entrants aged 15-24 years (30.3%) were recorded in the Accommodation & Food Services sector, compared with those aged 25-64 years (17.4%) in 2023. In contrast, 4.3% of employments among new entrants aged 15-24 years were recorded in the Human Health & Social Work sector, compared with 16.5% of employments among new entrants aged 25-64 years (See Table NELMA03).
In 2023, median weekly earnings among new entrant employments stood at €403.08, up 3.8% on the median weekly earnings recorded among new entrant employments in 2022 (€388.50). In terms of sex, median weekly earnings among male new entrants (€458.81) were 36.3% higher than their female counterparts (€336.64). Median weekly earnings recorded for new entrant employments among males were higher than those of females in 12 of the 13 economic sectors, with the greatest differences in Construction (61.2%), Administrative & Support Services (48.1%), and Information & Communication (43.2%). Human Health & Social Work was the only economic sector in which new entrant employments among females (€563.74) recorded higher median weekly earnings compared with their male counterparts (€511.40) (See Table NELMA04).
The age profile of new entrants had a considerable impact on the median weekly earnings recorded. Median weekly earnings recorded for employments among new entrants aged 25-64 years (€510.00) were more than double that among the younger cohort, aged 15-24 years (€252.17). The difference in weekly earnings between the two groups varied across economic sectors. New entrant employments among those aged 25-64 years (€595.79) had median weekly earnings 32.6% greater than their younger counterparts (€449.28) in the Industry sector, while in the Information & Communication sector the difference was even more considerable, at 176.0% (25-64 years: €1,237.30, 15-24 years: €448.34) (See Table NELMA04).
Nationalities contributing at least 2.0% of the total number of new entrants were listed individually in the following analysis. Other nationalities, as well as those that could not be coded, were included in the Other category. In terms of earnings of new entrants by nationality, Indian nationals had the highest median weekly earnings in 2023, at €601.86, while the lowest median weekly earnings among new entrant employments were recorded for Irish nationals at €257.84. Various CSO publications have previously highlighted how the age distribution of employees is likely to have an impact on the earnings estimates (Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources, Detailed Analysis of Earnings Distribution, Distribution of Earnings by Nationality). Similarly, the age profile of the new entrants had a significant impact on the average earnings overall; those aged 15-24 years accounted for 61.0% of new entrants of Irish nationality, while those aged 25-64 years accounted for the majority of Indian nationals in the new entrant cohort (87.5%) (See Table 1.2).
Among the youth employments, Spanish nationals had the highest median weekly earnings (€497.56), followed by Romanian (€491.77) and Italian (€453.08) nationals. In contrast, the median weekly earnings recorded for new entrant employments among Irish nationals of the same age group stood at €203.11 in 2023. A different trend was observed among new entrant employments aged 25-64 years. In this cohort, Indian nationals had the highest median weekly earnings (€643.31), 35.9% higher than Irish nationals (€473.20) and 75.1% higher than Brazilian nationals (€367.41) (See Table 1.4). The Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources release noted that more than one quarter (27.6%) of employments held by Indian nationals were in Information & Communication (16.4%) and Professional Scientific & Technical Activities (11.2%), which were among the economic sectors with the highest weekly earnings in 2023, while a further 31.4% of employments among Indian nationals were in the Human Health & Social Work sector.
The median weekly earnings recorded across total employments in 2023 stood at €699.28, 73.5% higher than the corresponding figure for new entrant employments (€403.08). Weekly earnings among new entrant employments were lower across all economic sectors compared with the weekly earnings recorded for total employments in 2023, as presented in Table 1.5 below, however the magnitude of difference between the cohorts varied across sectors.
Median weekly earnings in the Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities sector stood at €861.58 in 2023, €194.37, or 29.1%, higher than the weekly earnings recorded among new entrant employments (€667.21) in that sector. This compares with the Education sector, in which median weekly earnings recorded for total employments (€854.27) were more than double (122.4%) the weekly earnings recorded among new entrant employments (€384.05).
In 2023, median weekly earnings among new entrant employments stood at €403.08, up 3.8% on the previous year (€388.50). This compares with an increase of 4.2% in median weekly earnings across total employments. Weekly earnings recorded for total employments increased across all economic sectors between 2022 and 2023, ranging from 2.7% among employments in Transportation & Storage to 6.7% in Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities. In contrast, despite recording the highest median weekly earnings among new entrant employments in both 2022 and 2023, Information & Communication was the only economic sector to record a decline (-19.5%) in new entrant earnings in the year to 2023 (See Table 1.5).
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (21 March 2025) published Earnings of New Entrants to Employment for 2023.
Commenting on the data, Dr Eimear Heffernan, statistician in the Earnings Analysis Division of the CSO, said: “This analysis is based on the Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources (EAADS) release, produced by the CSO on an annual basis. The term ‘new entrants’ refers to individuals who did not appear on the annual EAADS file prior to the reference period. For example, new entrants in 2022 refers to individuals who were present on the 2022 annual file, but did not appear on EAADS in 2019, 2020, or 2021. Similarly, new entrants in 2023 were present on the 2023 annual file, but did not appear on EAADS in 2019, 2020, 2021, or 2022. New entrant employments refer to employments among individuals considered to be new entrants in a reference year.
Composition of New Entrant Cohort
Employments among new entrants accounted for 8.9% of the total employments in 2023, down from 10.7% in 2022. More than one-third (39.0%) of the new entrants were aged 15-24 years. In terms of nationality, Irish nationals accounted for the largest proportion of new entrants in 2023 at 43.5%, followed by Indian (8.3%) and Brazilian (5.2%) nationals. Of the new entrants of Irish nationality, more than half were aged 15-24 years (61.0%). Irish nationals were the only nationality cohort where the proportion of new entrants aged 15-24 years was larger than that aged 25-64 years. This is likely to have an impact on the average earnings among new entrant employments recorded for Irish nationals compared with their non-Irish national counterparts.
Employment by Economic Sector
The Accommodation & Food Services sector recorded the largest proportion of new entrant employments in 2023, at 22.5%, followed by Administrative & Support Services (13.1%) and Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services (12.3%). This compares with the Public Administration & Defence sector in which 1.8% of employments were represented by new entrants. The age profile of new entrants had an impact on the economic sector in which they were employed. A larger proportion of employments among new entrants aged 15-24 years (30.3%) were recorded in the Accommodation & Food Services sector, compared with those aged 25-64 years (17.4%) in 2023. In contrast, 4.3% of employments among new entrants aged 15-24 years were recorded in Human Health & Social Work, compared with 16.5% of employments among new entrants aged 25-64 years.
Earnings among New Entrants
In 2023, median weekly earnings among new entrant employments stood at €403.08, up 3.8% on the weekly earnings recorded among new entrant employments in 2022 (€388.50). This compares with an annual increase in weekly earnings of 4.2% across total employments. In 2023, median weekly earnings recorded across total employments (€699.28) was 73.5% higher than the corresponding figure for new entrant employments (€403.08), compared with 72.7% in 2022.
The highest median weekly earnings among new entrant employments were recorded in the Information & Communication sector (€994.12), followed by employments in Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities (€667.21) and Construction (€556.49). Despite recording the highest median weekly earnings among new entrant employments in both 2022 and 2023, Information & Communication was the only economic sector to record a decline (-19.5%) in new entrant earnings in the year to 2023. This was not observed among total employments, where an annual increase of 6.6% was recorded for median weekly earnings in this sector. The lowest median weekly earnings among new entrant employments were recorded for the Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services (€255.06) and Accommodation & Food Services (€273.89) sectors in 2023. Human Health & Social Work was the only economic sector in which new entrant employments among females (€563.74) recorded higher median weekly earnings compared with their male counterparts (€511.40).
Nationalities contributing at least 2.0% of the total number of new entrants were listed individually in the following analysis. Other nationalities, as well as those that could not be coded, were included in the Other category. In terms of earnings of new entrants by nationality, Indian nationals had the highest median weekly earnings in 2023, at €601.86, while the lowest median weekly earnings among new entrant employments were recorded for Irish nationals at €257.84. The CSO’s Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources (EAADS) release previously noted that earnings tend to increase with age. It is likely that the age profile of new entrants had a significant impact on the average earnings; those aged 15-24 years accounted for 61.0% of new entrants of Irish nationality, while those aged 25-64 years accounted for the majority of Indian nationals in the new entrant cohort (87.5%).
In 2023, new entrant employments among Irish nationals aged 15-24 years recorded median weekly earnings of €203.11, compared with weekly earnings of €400.98 among their non-Irish national counterparts. Further analysis from the CSO's Labour Force Survey (LFS) shows that a higher proportion (37.2%) of Irish nationals aged 15-24 years worked 19.5 hours or less per week, compared with 21.2% of non-Irish nationals. The gap in median weekly earnings between Irish (€473.20) and non-Irish (€518.86) nationals aged 25-64 years was less considerable.”