Statistics in this publication are based on population estimates which have not been updated following Census 2022. See LFS Background Notes.
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a continuous household survey conducted by the CSO and is the official source of statistics on employment and unemployment in Ireland.
Much of the LFS survey is governed by European Union (EU) Regulations (see 2019/1700 on Social Surveys (IESS) and 2019/2240 on LFS implementation) which prescribe the required methods, precision and core variables to be collected in the EU LFS across all EU member states.
In addition the EU LFS implements an eight year cycle of modules on an ad hoc subject across all EU member states. The purpose of the additional module is to provide users with statistics on a specific topic concerning the labour market. The subject of the 2022 module was Job Skills. The Job Skills module will be repeated in 2030.
Details on the sample design and data collection methods for Ireland’s core LFS are provided in the LFS background notes.
The annual EU LFS module is asked to a subsample of LFS respondents across all four quarters in the reference year. Specifically, participants in Wave 3 are asked to complete the module if they are aged between 15 and 74 and are either currently employed or are currently not working but were employed in the last 24 months.
Explanatory notes for the variables collected in the 2022 Job Skills module are available on the Eurostat website (PDF 539KB).
The CSO instrument is available in the LFS Questionnaire (PDF 5,919KB).
The 8 core skills asked in the Job Skills question are as follows:
There are also three additional skills which are derived variables based on the skills above:
Each of these variables has the following values:
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