The employment rate in Ireland was 63.1% in 2015, the eleventh lowest in the EU and below the EU average of 65.6%. The highest employment rate in the EU was in Sweden at 75.5% followed by the Netherlands at 74.1%. The lowest employment rate was in Greece at 50.8%.
Male employment rates are higher than female rates in all EU countries, with the smallest difference in Lithuania at 1.5 percentage points while the largest gap is in Malta at 25.2.
The male employment rate in Ireland in 2007 was 16.9 percentage points higher than the female rate but by 2016 this gender gap had decreased to 10.4 percentage points, (see graph).
The employment rate in Ireland fell sharply from 69.1% in 2007 to 58.8% by 2012. However the employment rate has increased each year over the last four years to stand at 64.7% in 2016.
The male employment rate fell from 77.5% in 2007 to 62.4% in 2012, before increasing each year for the last four years to stand at 69.9% in 2016.
The employment rate for females followed a similar pattern to the male rate, falling from 60.6% in 2007 to 55.2% by 2012 and then rising to 59.5% in 2016.
Labour productivity per hour worked in Ireland was 39.2% higher than the EU28 average in 2011. The index fell slightly to 133.3 in 2013 before an increase to 136.1 in 2014 and sharp rise to 168.8 in 2015.
The increase in labour productivity per hour worked in Ireland in 2015 is linked to the strong rise in GDP in Ireland in 2015, (see table 2.1).
Ireland had the second highest labour productivity among EU states in 2015, after Luxembourg at 179.3.
The thirteen EU member states who joined since 2004, along with Spain, Greece and Portugal, had productivity rates below the EU average in 2015.
The unemployment rate in Ireland in 2015, at 9.8%, was the tenth highest in the EU and was slightly above the EU average. Germany had the lowest unemployment rate of just 4.6% while Greece had the highest at 24.9%.
Fifteen EU countries, including Ireland, had higher male than female unemployment rates in 2015. The male unemployment rate was 11.1% in Ireland in 2015 while the rate for females was 8.2%.
The unemployment rate in Ireland rose slightly from 4.7% in 2006 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 peak at 15%. Since then, the unemployment rate has dropped each year to 8.6% in 2016.
The long-term unemployment rate (those unemployed for a year or more) in Ireland was 5.5% in 2015 and was the ninth highest in the EU. The average rate in the EU was 4.5% with the lowest rate of 1.5% in Sweden and the highest rate of 18.2% in Greece.
The long-term unemployment rate for men in Ireland was 6.8% in 2015, higher than the rate for women of 3.9%. 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 2006 and 2008 but it increased to 2.9% in 2009 and then more doubled to 6.4% in 2010. The rate continued to increase over the next two years to stand at 9.3% in 2012, (see graph).
However the long-term unemployment rate in Ireland then decreased steadily over the next four years to stand at 4.4% in 2016.
The EU long-term unemployment rate dropped from 3.7% in 2006 to 2.6% in 2008 before rising to 5.1% in 2013. In 2014 there was a small decrease in the EU rate to 5% followed by a further decrease to 4.5% in 2015.
2.18 EU: Population aged 18-59 living in jobless households, 2011-20151,2
% of target population
Country
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Czech Republic
6.3
6.5
6.3
5.9
5.9
Malta
7.0
7.2
7.6
7.4
6.5
Slovakia
8.7
8.4
8.6
8.4
7.5
Estonia
9.5
9.4
8.7
8.2
7.8
Luxembourg
7.2
6.5
7.6
7.3
8.0
Germany
8.3
8.1
8.0
8.0
8.1
Hungary
13.7
13.0
12.3
9.7
8.3
Austria
7.9
8.0
8.2
8.6
8.6
Latvia
11.2
10.5
9.4
9.4
8.7
Netherlands
7.3
7.5
8.6
9.0
8.7
Portugal
8.4
10.0
10.9
9.6
9.0
Slovenia
8.9
8.6
9.6
9.6
9.0
Denmark
9.9
10.2
9.5
9.8
9.4
Poland
10.1
10.1
10.4
9.9
9.4
United Kingdom
11.9
11.5
11.0
10.1
9.7
Cyprus
6.2
7.5
9.2
9.6
9.8
Finland
9.4
9.3
9.7
10.2
10.4
EU 28
10.6
10.9
11.2
11.0
10.6
Romania
11.8
11.0
11.0
10.9
10.6
Lithuania
13.0
12.5
11.9
11.2
11.0
Croatia
11.1
12.2
12.9
12.2
11.2
Sweden
10.4
11.1
10.7
10.3
11.4
France
10.3
10.4
10.6
11.3
11.5
Bulgaria
13.3
13.6
13.3
12.9
12.2
Ireland
15.6
15.9
14.7
13.5
12.4
Belgium
12.9
12.7
12.9
13.0
13.1
Italy
11.2
11.8
13.3
13.4
13.1
Spain
12.9
15.1
15.9
15.3
13.9
Greece
13.7
17.6
19.6
18.8
18.1
Turkey
13.6
13.8
13.4
11.2
11.4
Macedonia
19.6
18.9
16.1
14.9
15.7
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.
About one in eight people (12.4%) in Ireland lived in a jobless household in 2015 which was the fifth highest proportion in the EU. The highest rate was in Greece at 18.1%.
The EU 28 average proportion of persons aged 18-59 living in jobless households in 2015 was 10.6% while 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 2006 to 2008 at about 8 to 9%. However the proportion increased sharply to 12.7% in 2009 and continued to rise over the following three years to reach 15.9% in 2012. Over the following three years the rate declined to stand at 12.4% in 2015, (see graph).
