Following a review of the population benchmarks used in the Labour Force Survey releases for Q3 and Q4 2025, published on 20 November 2025 and 19 February 2026 respectively, processing and compilation issues were identified in the demography benchmarks.
As a result, the data and text were revised on 21 May 2026. The updated benchmarks provide a more accurate reflection of the population by country of citizenship and resulted in minor revisions to some previously published estimates. Further details on these revisions are available in the Information Note. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
The number of persons aged 15-74 years who were unemployed increased by 12,200 (+10.4%) to 128,200 in the year to Q4 2025, using standard International Labour Organisation (ILO) criteria.
Unemployment increased by 4,100 (+6.3%) for males to 69,100 in the year to Q4 2025 – this compares with a rise of 8,100 (+15.9%) to 59,200 for females over the same period. See Tables QLF01 and QLF02.
The unemployment rate for those aged 15-24 years, known as the Youth Unemployment Rate, stood at 9.8% in Q4 2025 down from 9.9% in Q4 2024. The total number of unemployed people in this age group was 35,100, unchanged from Q4 2024.
The unemployment rate for those aged 25-74 years was 3.6% in Q4 2025, up from 3.2% 12 months earlier. The total number of persons unemployed in this age group was 93,300 an increase of 12,100 people (+14.9%) from Q4 2024 – See Table QLF18.
71.1% 1 of unemployed persons in Q4 2025 were in short-term unemployment (less than one year). Over the year to Q4 2025, short-term unemployment rose by 4,300 (+5.1%) to 88,500, while there was an increase of 8,700 (+28.2%) in the numbers of long-term unemployed to 36,100.
The long-term unemployment rate increased from 1.0% in Q4 2024 to 1.2% in Q4 2025. 28.9%* of unemployed persons were in long-term unemployment in Q4 2025 which is up from 25.0% a year earlier.
1excluding ‘Not stated’
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the numbers unemployed in Q4 2025 stood at 137,200, a fall of 8,200 (-5.6%).
The seasonally adjusted number of unemployed males decreased by 3,500 (-4.5%) to 73,700 over the quarter to Q4 2025, while the corresponding number for females was down 4,700 (-6.9%) to 63,500 over the same period. See Table QLF06.
See Monthly Unemployment outputs for supplementary analysis of seasonally adjusted unemployment.
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