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Labour Market

2,349,100
Persons in employment in Q2 2021

The statistics presented in this chapter show developments in the Irish labour market and are based primarily on results from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The primary classification used for LFS results is the ILO (International Labour Office) labour force classification. This distinguishes persons aged 15 years and older into three groups - Employed (15-89 years), Unemployed (15-74 years) and Inactive Population (not in labour force - 15 years and older). The rest of the chapter contains administrative data, compiled by the CSO, showing the trends in the number of persons on the Live Register.

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X-axis labelMalesFemales
In labour force1362.71170.5
In employment1263.21085.9
Full-time employment1108.1764.4
Part-time employment155.1321.4
Unemployed99.584.6
Not in labour force609.4873.3
Table 3.1 Persons aged 15 years and over classified by sex and ILO economic status

The total number of persons in the labour force in 2021 was 2,533,200 representing an overall participation rate of 63.1%. Since pre COVID-19 times in 2019, the labour force has increased by 4.4% or 106,200 while the participation rate has gone up by 1.1 percentage points from 62.0%. The number of persons in employment increased by 52,900 or 2.3% to 2,349,100 over the same period.

There were 1,872,600 persons in full-time employment in 2021 while the corresponding number for part-time employment was 476,500. Full-time employment accounted for 79.7% of total employment in 2021.

The number of persons who were classified as unemployed in 2021 was 184,100 and this was up by 53,200 or 40.6% from 2019. The unemployment rate increased from 5.4% to 7.3% over the same period.

While the level of employment and unemployment increased in almost equal measure over the two-year period, the employment rate for persons aged 15-64 years at 68.6% in 2021 was still below the rate of 69.0% in 2019. This coupled with the increased unemployment rate meant that the increased rate of participation was governed more by increased unemployment rather than employment.

Visit tables QLF01-QLF36 on PxStat

Link to release: Labour Force Survey Quarterly

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Table 3.2 Annual average number of persons on the Live Register in each Regional Authority

The average number of persons on the Live Register increased from 191,529 in 2019 to 208,487 in 2020. The average number of males on the Live Register stood at 115,492 in 2020, with the average number of females at 92,994.

Visit table LRM17 on PxStat

Link to release: Live Register

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