There were 2,554,600 persons aged 15-89 years in employment in Q2 2022. This represents an increase of 205,500 (+8.7%) over the year from Q2 2021.
The employment rate for persons aged 15-64 years was up from 68.6% to 73.5% over the year to Q2 2022.
Of those who were in employment in Q2 2022, an estimated 187,200 (7.3%) were absent from work during the reference week (i.e. temporarily absent from work for reasons such as holidays, sick leave or maternity leave). This compares to 220,900 (9.4%) who were absent from work during the reference week in Q2 2021.
The estimated total number of hours worked per week in Q2 2022 is 83.0 million hours, up by 7.1 million hours or 9.4% on Q2 2021.
Unemployment
There were 119,900 unemployed persons aged 15-74 years in Q2 2022 using ILO criteria, with an associated unemployment rate for those aged 15-74 of 4.5%, down from 7.3% in Q2 2021.
The unemployment rate among those aged 15-24 years was 11.4% in Q2 2022, down from 21.1% in Q2 2021.
The Monthly Unemployment release published on 04 August 2022 includes the latest monthly unemployment rates and monthly unemployment volumes up to July 2022; please see the Monthly Unemployment release for more information.
Labour Force
The estimated Labour Force (i.e., the sum of all persons aged 15-89 years who were either employed or unemployed) stood at 2,674,500 in Q2 2022, up by 5.6% (141,300) from Q2 2021.
The estimated participation rate in Q2 2022 was 65.2%, up from 63.1% in Q2 2021.
The number of persons outside the Labour Force, according to ILO criteria, was 1,424,800.
This is an audio file with a 30-second quote from CSO Statistician with the Labour Market Division, Sam Scriven, about the Labour Force Survey Quarter 2 2022 release. Media outlets have permission to use the clip as long as they credit the CSO.
