Using standard International Labour Organisation (ILO) criteria, an estimated 2,818,100 persons were in employment in Q2 2025, up 2.3% (63,900) from 2,754,200 in Q2 2024.
The increase of 63,900 (+2.3%) in employment is composed of increases of 43,700 (+3.0%) for males and 20,300 (+1.6%) for females in the year to Q2 2025.
The employment rate for those aged 15-64 was 74.7% in Q2 2025 compared to 74.4% in Q2 2024 and 74.2% in Q2 2023. In Q2 2025, the employment rate for males aged 15-64 years was 78.5%, compared to 71.0% for females. See PxStat table QLF18.
See Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data Sources outputs for employment estimates based on administrative data for employees.
The economic sectors that saw the largest year-on-year increases in employment in Q2 2025 were:
Breaking these increases down to NACE division (2-digit level), the year-on-year increase seen in Construction was primarily driven by increases in division 41 Construction of buildings (+17,800) and division 43 Specialised construction activities (+14,400). Human health & Social work activities was primarily driven by increases in division 87 Residential care activities (+8,700) and division 88 Social work activities without accommodation (+9,400). See PxStat table QES01.
The largest decrease in employment by economic sector in Q2 2025 was observed in:
This decrease was driven by a decrease of 16,400 persons observed in NACE division 62 Computer programming, consultancy & related activities. See PxStat table QES01.
More than 6 in 10 of those in employment in Q2 2025 stated that they never work at home (1,795,600).
Of the 1,013,100 people who reported that they work from home at least some of the time in Q2 2025, 555,500 said that they usually (more than half the time) work from home, down from a peak of 774,300 in Q2 2021.
There were 457,600 people who sometimes (at least one hour in the reference period) worked from home in Q2 2025, up from 399,300 in Q2 2024.
The estimated total number of hours worked per week in Q2 2025 stood at 88.9 million hours, up by 1.6 million hours or 1.9% on Q2 2024, and up 3.3 million hours (+3.9%) on Q2 2023. See Figure 2.3.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the numbers in employment in Q2 2025 stood at 2,813,200 after a rise of 3,600 (+0.1%) from the previous quarter. This follows on from a seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter increase in employment of 31,300 (+1.1%) in Q1 2025.
The seasonally adjusted number of males in employment was up by 12,100 (+0.8%) over the quarter to 1,493,300 in Q2 2025, while the corresponding number for females was down 7,600 (-0.6%) to 1,320,600 over the same period. See PxStat table QLF03.
See Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data Sources outputs for seasonally adjusted employment estimates based on administrative data for employees.
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