The Background Notes at the end of this release contain the definitions for respondents to the Labour Force Survey (LFS) to be classified as employed, unemployed or inactive based on the ILO criteria. Respondents are first asked a suite of questions to check if they were Employed. If a person is not classified as Employed, they are asked a suite of questions to determine if they should be classified as Unemployed. The criteria are as follows:
Persons aged 15 years or over are classified as not being in the Labour Force (Inactive) if they do not satisfy the ILO criteria for being classified as Employed or Unemployed.
Unlike previous downturns, the COVID-19 Pandemic had a peculiar effect on the Labour Market in Ireland. This is because displaced workers during COVID-19 lockdown were more likely to be classified as Inactive rather than Unemployed as the majority, although available to start work, had not been seeking work in the previous 4 weeks. Thus, they failed to meet the criteria to be classified as Unemployed.
The number of persons not in the labour force was 1,424,800, which was down 3.9% or 57,900 from a year earlier.
The Potential Additional Labour Force (PALF) is the sum of the two groups ‘Seeking work but not immediately available’ and ‘Available for work but not seeking work’. Persons in the PALF are not part of the standard labour force, which encompasses only Employed and Unemployed people, but they have a stronger attachment to the labour market than other persons not in the labour force. Persons ‘Available for work but not seeking work’ accounted for the majority of the PALF in Quarter 2 of 2020 to 2022.
The number of persons in employment increased by 205,500 in the year to Q2 2022. This was accompanied by a fall of 64,200 in the number of persons unemployed and a fall of 57,900 in the number of persons outside of the labour force. This meant that persons re-entering the labour market in Q2 2022 were far more likely to have found a job rather than being classified as unemployed.
| Q2 2020 | Q2 2021 | Q2 2022 | |
| Available for work but not seeking work | 278 | 154.8 | 66.2 |
| Seeking work but not immediately available | 14.4 | 23.4 | 18.3 |
Persons may also want to work but are unable to do so for a number of reasons and Figure 8.2 shows the breakdown of this category for Quarter 2 of 2020 through to Q2 2022.
| Q2 2020 | Q2 2021 | Q2 2022 | |
| Other reasons | 17.5 | 21.4 | 13.1 |
| Care responsibilities/personal family reasons | 30.1 | 26.4 | 27.6 |
| Own illness or disability | 34.1 | 28.4 | 35.4 |
| Education or training | 18.3 | 23.8 | 23.9 |
Of those who stated that they wanted to work but were not seeking work or available for work in Q2 2022, 23.9% said this was due to education or training. This compares to 23.8% a year earlier and 18.3% in Q2 2020. Persons with own illness or disability accounted for 35.4% of the total in Q2 2022, and this was more than the 34.1.% and 28.4% recorded in both Q2 2020 and Q2 2021 respectively.
