Of the new entrants in 2024, 52.6% were male and 47.4% were female. Those aged 15-24 years accounted for the largest proportion (40.6%) of new entrants in 2024, followed by those aged 30-39 years (21.5%), and 25-29 years (15.2%) (See Table NELMA01).
In terms of nationality, Irish nationals accounted for the largest proportion of new entrants in 2024 at 42.5%, followed by Indian (9.0%) and Ukrainian (5.1%) nationals. The proportion of new entrants represented by Irish nationals decreased by 1.0 percentage point, compared with 2023 (43.5%) (See Table NELMA07). Of the new entrants of Irish nationality in 2024, almost two-thirds were aged 15-24 years (64.5%). 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).
Employments among new entrants accounted for 8.0% of the total employments in 2024. The Accommodation & Food Services sector recorded the largest proportion of new entrant employments in 2024, at 19.4%, followed by Administrative & Support Services (12.6%) and Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services (11.0%). 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 (21.0%), followed by the Wholesale & Retail Trade (18.5%) and Human Health & Social Work (12.1%) sectors.
The age profile of new entrants had an impact on the economic sector in which they were employed, as presented in Figure 1.3. A larger proportion of employments among new entrants aged 15-24 years (28.5%) were recorded in the Accommodation & Food Services sector, compared with those aged 25-64 years (16.1%) in 2024. In contrast, 4.7% of employments among new entrants aged 15-24 years were recorded in the Human Health & Social Work sector, compared with 17.3% of employments among new entrants aged 25-64 years (See Table NELMA03).
In 2024, median weekly earnings among new entrant employments stood at €428.58, up 6.3% on 2023 (€403.08). In terms of sex, median weekly earnings among new entrant male employments (€489.08) were 37.0% higher than their female counterparts (€356.88). 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 (60.8%), Administrative & Support Services (45.1%), and Accommodation & Food Services (32.6%). Human Health & Social Work was the only economic sector in which new entrant employments among females (€584.44) recorded higher median weekly earnings compared with their male counterparts (€553.99) (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 (€546.74) were more than double that among the younger cohort, aged 15-24 years (€266.43). The difference in weekly earnings between the two groups varied across economic sectors. New entrant employments among those aged 25-64 years (€639.21) had median weekly earnings 34.3% greater than their younger counterparts (€476.12) in the Industry sector, while in the Information & Communication sector the difference was even more considerable, at 159.4% (25-64 years: €1,276.37, 15-24 years: €491.99) (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, Romanian nationals had the highest median weekly earnings in 2024, at €589.83, while the lowest median weekly earnings among new entrant employments were recorded for Irish nationals at €262.94. Various CSO releases 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 64.5% of new entrants of Irish nationality, while those aged 25-64 years accounted for the majority of Romanian nationals in the new entrant cohort (69.3%) (See Table 1.2).
Among the new entrant youth employments, Spanish nationals had the highest median weekly earnings (€540.82), followed by Romanian (€537.44) and Portuguese (€513.68) nationals. In contrast, the median weekly earnings recorded for new entrant employments among Irish nationals of the same age group stood at €209.03 in 2024. Further analysis provided greater insight into the compositional effect on earnings among new entrant youth employments. More than three-quarters (75.1%) of employments among Irish nationals in the youth category were represented by those aged 15-19 years, compared with 24.2% of employments among their non-Irish counterparts. Median weekly earnings recorded for the 15-19 years age group among Irish nationals stood at €176.63 in 2024, while earnings among their counterparts aged 20-24 years were almost double that, at €346.26. The high proportion of 15-19 year olds is likely to skew the overall median weekly earnings among Irish nationals downwards in terms of the youth employments cohort.
A different trend was observed among new entrant employments aged 25-64 years. In this cohort, UK nationals had the highest median weekly earnings (€673.08), 30.5% higher than Irish nationals (€515.92) and 75.1% higher than Brazilian nationals (€384.44) (See Table 1.4).
The median weekly earnings recorded across total employments in 2024 stood at €730.89, 70.5% higher than the corresponding figure for new entrant employments (€428.58). 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 Administrative & Support Services sector stood at €632.72 in 2024, €145.32, or 29.8%, higher than the weekly earnings recorded among new entrant employments (€487.40) in that sector. This compares with the Education sector, in which median weekly earnings recorded for total employments (€890.18) were more than double (131.2%) the weekly earnings recorded among new entrant employments (€384.96).
Weekly earnings recorded for total employments increased across all economic sectors between 2023 and 2024, ranging from 3.1% among employments in Public Administration & Defence to 7.5% in Accommodation & Food Services. In contrast, both the Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities (-3.9%) and Financial, Insurance & Real Estate (-1.6%) sectors recorded a decline in new entrant earnings in 2024, compared with the previous year, while new entrant employments in Administrative & Support Services saw an annual increase of 6.8% in median weekly earnings (See Table 1.5).
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.