This release is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example, new administrative data sources.
The COVID-19 years 2020 and 2021 had a notable effect on the composition of employment type with many continuous workers either leaving employment or reducing the number of weeks worked reducing from 87.3% of all continuous employments in 2019 to 83.3% in 2020 and 85.7% in 2021. This consequently led to the rise in employments of 'seasonal' workers during this period. However, by 2023 the composition of the employment market had returned to pre COVID-19 levels with 12.6% of employment classed as seasonal and 87.4% classed as continuous. See Figure 2.1.
Looking at the effect of age on working patterns, it is clear that the younger working population aged 15-24 tend to do more seasonal work than the general working population aged 25-64. In 2019, those aged 15-24 made up 16.4% of all employments, however, their proportional representation in seasonal work was 38.5%. This compares to those aged 25-64 who made up 81.0% of all employments, this cohort made up 58.2% of seasonal employments. By 2023, the composition was relatively the same as 2019. Those aged 15-24 accounted for 17.1% of all employments, up 0.7 percentage points from 2019 while those in seasonal work remained similar at 38.6%. The proportion of the general working population aged 25-64 decreased 0.9 percentage points to 80.1% of all employments and those in seasonal work remained similar to 2019 at 58.1%. See Figure 2.2.
Trends in employment type by Irish and non-Irish nationality show that non-Irish nationals are more likely to be in seasonal work compared to Irish nationals. For example, Irish nationals made up 72.7% of employments in Ireland in 2023. In terms of seasonal work, they accounted for 63.8% of seasonal workers in 2023, down 4.6 percentage points from 2019. Non-Irish nationals accounted for 27.3% of all employments in 2023 and made up 36.2% of seasonal workers, up 4.6 percentage points since 2019. It should be noted that although as a proportion, Irish nationals’ representation is decreasing, the total numbers in employment for Irish and non-Irish nationals had both increased in the years from 2019-2023 by 127,623 and 188,894 employments respectively. See Figure 2.3, Figure 2.4 and Table 2.1.
Despite the fluctuations in working patterns median weekly earnings growth has continued year on year. Seasonal workers had median weekly earnings of €382.06 in 2023, up 6.4% since 2022 and up 18.4% since 2019. See Figure 2.5.
In 2023, seasonal work was most prevalent in the Accommodation & Food Services sector making up 22.3% of employments, followed by Tourism which had 20.8% of employments as seasonal, Administrative & Support Services had 20.2% seasonal workers and in Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing 18.7% of employments were categorised as seasonal. These sectors made up the top four sectors for seasonal employments. See Figure 2.6.
There are four sectors in Ireland that had the highest proportion of seasonal workers in relation to their overall numbers in employment from 2019-2023. They were the Accommodation & Food Services sector, Tourism Industries, Administrative & Support Services, and Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing. There were some noticeable compositional effects during the COVID-19 years, 2020-2022, where the proportion of continuous workers reduced and the proportion of seasonal workers grew. However, due to lockdowns and sector specific restrictions, there would have been a large number of workers inadvertently moved between the groups during these years. An example of this was in the Accommodation & Food Services sector seen in Figure 2.7. Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing on the other hand was relatively stable during this period. The main focus in comparison will be 2019 and 2023 as these were the year’s least affected by COVID-19.
As seen in Figure 2.7 and Table 2.2, the proportion of seasonal workers in Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing and Administrative & Support Services has decreased from 2019 to 2023. From 20.8% to 18.7% in Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing and 20.8% to 20.2% in Administrative & Support Services. In terms of growth, the number of seasonal employments in Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing has reduced by 2.8% since 2019. Seasonal employments in the Administrative & Support Services had risen by 6.2% from 2019-2023.
Tourism industries which is an agglomeration of a few parts of different sectors in 2023 had 20.8% of the sector made up of seasonal workers, this is up 0.1 percentage point from 2019. While in the sector, growth in seasonal employment rose 12.7% since 2019 to 2023. The Accommodation & Food Services sector had 22.3% of employments classed as seasonal in 2023, up 0.1 percentage point from 2019. However, the number of seasonal employments increased by 11.9% during this period. See Figure 2.7, Table 2.1 and Table 2.2.
Of the top four sectors with the highest prevalence of seasonal workers, median weekly earnings for seasonal employment in 2023 were highest in the Administrative & Support Services at €433.18, this sector also experienced the highest growth in median weekly earnings since 2019, increasing by 20.3%. The Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing sector had the next highest median weekly earnings at €396.19 in 2023 which rose by 18.4% from 2019-2023, the Tourism sector had median weekly earnings of €273.25, an increase of 16.3% and the Accommodation & Food Services sector had the lowest median weekly earnings for seasonal employment of €267.43 rising 15.6% since 2019.
Across the four sectors median weekly earnings were lower for employees in seasonal employments than continuous employments. For further information on median weekly earnings please see the Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources 2023.
Exploring the compositional make up of the top four seasonal sectors we can see that there are differences in type of work in terms of age, nationality, and sector of employment which provide further insight into working patterns and median weekly earnings. There are some clear differences in working patterns for Irish and non-Irish nationals which depend on their age category. For Irish nationals, with the exception of the Administration & Support Service Activities sector, the majority of seasonal work is done by those aged 15-24 years old making up between 36% - 41% of seasonal employments in Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing; Accommodation & Food Services and Tourism Industries. In the case of non-Irish nationals, it is those aged between 25-64 years old who work in seasonal employments making up between 26% – 40% of seasonal employments in Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing; Accommodation & Food Services; Administrative & Support Service Activities and Tourism Industries.
In Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing, the median weekly earnings of seasonal workers was €396.19 for 2023 and accounted for 18.7% of all employments in the sector. Within that, Irish nationals aged 15-24 years old made up the largest proportion of seasonal workers with 40.9% of employments and median weekly earnings of €300.00, non-Irish nationals aged 25-64 years old represent the second largest group with 25.7% of seasonal employments in Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing and median weekly earnings of €496.00 and Irish nationals aged 25-64 years old made up 21.8% of seasonal employments and had median weekly earnings of €433.33.
Seasonal workers in the Accommodation & Food Services sector had median weekly earnings of €267.43 and 22.3% of all employments. Breaking out the composition of seasonal workers in this sector, the highest proportion (36.6%) were Irish nationals aged 15-24 years old with median weekly earnings of €188.41, non-Irish nationals aged 25-64 years old made up 32.1% of seasonal employments and had median weekly earnings of €349.43 and non-Irish nationals aged 15-24 years old had the third largest share of seasonal employments at 17.7% with median weekly earnings of €305.73. See Figure 2.8, Table 2.2 and Table 2.3.
Administration & Support Service Activities in 2023 had 20.2% of all employments in the sector classed as seasonal and median weekly earnings in that group of €433.18. The subgroup with the highest proportion of seasonal workers in this sector were non-Irish nationals aged 25-64 years old with 40.3% of seasonal employments and median weekly earnings of €450.94, Irish nationals aged 25-64 years old had the next highest representation accounting for 27.4% of seasonal employments with median weekly earnings of €487.50 and then Irish nationals aged 15-24 years old had the third highest proportion of seasonal employments ,19.7%, and median weekly earnings of €366.74.
Tourism Industries which is an agglomeration of a few parts of different sectors had seasonal workers make up 20.8% of all employments and median weekly earnings of €273.25. Of all seasonal workers in the sector Irish nationals aged 15-24 years old made up 35.8% of seasonal employments and median weekly earnings of €191.45, followed by non-Irish nationals aged 25-64 with 31.9% of seasonal employments and median weekly earnings of €355.67, non-Irish nationals aged 15-24 made up the third highest proportion of seasonal employments, 17.8%, with median weekly earnings €311.50.
Understanding the compositional make up of these sectors adds context to the factors that influence median weekly earnings in each sector. For example, sectors where there were higher proportions of young Irish and non-Irish nationals aged 15-24 in seasonal work tended to have lower median weekly earnings such as the Accommodation & Food Services sector. If we compare this to the Administration & Support Services Activities sector, there is a much higher proportion of Irish and non-Irish nationals aged 25-64 working in seasonal employment and median weekly earnings in this sector was higher than the other three sectors. See Figure 2.8, Table 2.2 and Table 2.3.
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