The employment rate in Ireland was 61.3% in 2014, the eighth lowest in the EU and well below the EU average of 64.8%. The highest employment rate in the EU was in Sweden at 74.9% followed by Germany at 73.8%. The lowest employment rate was in Greece at 49.4%.
Male employment rates are higher than females rates in all EU countries, with the smallest difference in Finland at 1.5 percentage points and the largest in Malta at 25.6.
The male employment rate in Ireland in 2005 was 18.4 percentage points higher than the female rate and this gender gap had nearly halved to 9.9 percentage points by 2014, (see graph).
The employment rate in Ireland rose from 67.5% in 2005 to 69.1% in 2007 before falling sharply over the next five years to 58.8% in 2012. However the employment rate has increased each year over the last three years to stand at 63.1% in 2015.
The male employment rate in Ireland was about 76% between 2005 and 2008 and then fell sharply to stand at 62.4% in 2012, before increasing each year for the last three years to stand at 68.7% in 2015.
The female employment rate increased from 58.2% in 2005 to 60.6% in 2007 before dropping to 55.2% in 2012, followed by rises over the last three years to 57.6% in 2015.
Productivity in Ireland was 44.2% higher than the EU 28 average in 2014, when measured using GDP in Purchasing Power Standards (PPS) per person employed.
As Irish employees work longer hours, productivity per hour worked is lower, at 29.3% above the EU 28 average.
Ireland had the second highest productivity rate among EU states in 2014, after Luxembourg, when measured using GDP per person employed.
When measured using GDP per hour worked, Irish productivity was the fourth highest in the EU, after Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The thirteen EU member states who joined since 2004, along with Greece and Portugal, have productivity rates below the EU average, when measured using GDP per person employed.
The unemployment rate in Ireland in 2014, at 11.9%, was the eighth highest in the EU and above the EU average of 10.2%. Germany had the lowest unemployment rate of just 5% while Greece had a rate of 26.5%.
Sixteen EU countries, including Ireland, had higher male than female unemployment rates in 2014, with Ireland having the second largest gender differential in the EU: 13.6% of males and 9.7% of females were unemployed.
The unemployment rate in Ireland was 4.8% in 2005, having been significantly higher in the 1990's. Over the following two years the rate remained fairly stable and then increased to 5.8% in 2008, (see graph).
The rate of unemployment then more than doubled in 2009 to 12.3% and increased again in 2010, 2011 and 2012 to reach 15%. Since then, the unemployment rate decreased to 13.9% in 2013, followed by further decreases to 11.9% in 2014 and 9.8% in 2015.
The long-term unemployment rate (those unemployed for a year or more) in Ireland was 6.8% in 2014 and was the ninth highest in the EU. The average rate in the EU was 5.1% with the lowest rate of 1.5% in Austria and the highest rate of 19.5% in Greece.
The long-term unemployment rate for men in Ireland was 8.5% in 2014, nearly double the rate for women of 4.6%. The EU rates for men and women were the same.
The long-term unemployment rate in Ireland was fairly stable at around 1.5% between 2005 and 2008 but it increased to 2.9% in 2009 and then more than doubled to 6.4% in 2010. The rate continued to increase over the next two years to stand at 9.2% by 2012, (see graph).
However the long-term unemployment rate in Ireland decreased to 8.1% in 2013, fell to 6.8% in 2014 and was followed by a further decrease to 5.5% in 2015.
The EU long-term unemployment rate was 4.1% in 2005 and fell to 2.6% in 2008. In 2009 the rate rose to 3% and continued to increase over the following five years to stand at 5.1% in 2014.
2.18 EU: Population aged 18-59 living in jobless households, 2010-20141,2
% of target population
Country
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Czech Republic
6.7
6.3
6.5
6.3
5.9
Luxembourg
6.7
7.2
6.5
7.6
7.3
Malta
7.5
7.0
7.2
7.6
7.5
Germany
9.1
8.3
8.1
8.0
8.0
Estonia
11.9
9.5
9.4
8.7
8.2
Slovakia
9.2
8.7
8.4
8.6
8.4
Austria
7.9
7.9
8.0
8.2
8.6
Netherlands
7.2
7.1
7.3
8.4
8.8
Latvia
12.4
11.2
10.5
9.4
9.4
Cyprus
5.9
6.2
7.5
9.2
9.6
Portugal
7.4
8.4
10.0
10.9
9.6
Slovenia
8.3
8.9
8.6
9.6
9.6
Hungary
13.8
13.7
13.0
12.3
9.7
Denmark
9.5
9.9
10.2
9.5
9.8
Poland
10.4
10.1
10.1
10.4
9.9
United Kingdom
11.9
11.9
11.5
11.0
10.1
Finland
9.5
9.4
9.3
9.7
10.2
Sweden
10.9
10.4
11.1
10.7
10.3
EU 28
10.5
10.6
10.9
11.2
10.9
France
10.3
10.3
10.5
10.6
10.9
Romania
10.8
11.8
11.0
11.0
10.9
Lithuania
14.3
13.0
12.5
11.9
11.2
Croatia
10.6
11.1
12.2
12.9
12.2
Bulgaria
12.0
13.3
13.6
13.3
12.9
Belgium
12.5
12.9
12.7
12.9
13.0
Italy
11.1
11.2
11.8
13.3
13.4
Ireland
14.6
15.6
15.9
14.7
13.5
Spain
11.8
12.9
15.1
15.9
15.3
Greece
10.3
13.7
17.6
19.6
18.8
Turkey
15.5
13.6
13.8
13.4
11.2
Macedonia
19.2
19.6
18.9
16.1
14.9
Source: Eurostat LFS
1 This indicator is calculated as the share of persons aged 18-59 who are living in households where no one works. Households containing only students aged 18-24 are not included (See Appendix 1).
2 See Appendix 1 for details on breaks in series for this table.
Ireland had the third highest proportion in the EU of persons aged 18-59 living in jobless households in 2014. 13.5% of persons in Ireland lived in a jobless household, below Greece at 18.8% and Spain at 15.3%.
The EU 28 average proportion of persons aged 18-59 living in jobless households was 10.9% and the lowest rate was in the Czech Republic at 5.9%.
The proportion of the population aged 18-59 living in jobless households in Ireland was stable over the period 2005 to 2008 at about 8 to 9%. However the proportion increased sharply to 12.7% in 2009 and continued to rise over the following years to reach 15.9% in 2012. There was a decline to 14.7% in 2013 and a further decrease in 2014 to 13.5%.
