This publication 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 monthly employee index for males fell by 0.2%, while the employee index for females was down by 0.1% in the month to March 2025.
The seasonally adjusted annual employee index rose by 1.5% to March 2025.
Taking age into account, the largest monthly increase was observed in the 60-64 years age category (+0.3%). The largest monthly decrease was in the 15-19 years age group (-1.2%).
The largest monthly rise by economic sector was in Administrative & Support Services (+0.5%).
The Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data release is a very short time series (just over five years of monthly data) and is thus at the lower limit of acceptable length for the seasonal adjustment process. In the short term, care should be taken in interpreting the seasonally adjusted output. Users should be aware that there is increased uncertainty around the seasonally adjusted figures during the COVID-19 period due to the volatility of the data. Non-seasonally adjusted data are available on PxStat. The seasonal models were revised in June 2024. The models are being updated as part of the annual review process in accordance with the CSO and ESS (European Statistical System/Eurostat) guidelines.
The Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data is published as a 'Frontier' release, therefore the methodology and data are subject to revision. As more data become available, due to later transmissions from employers, the series may change from month to month. As this particularly affects the most recent months, figures should be considered provisional for the two most recent months for the non-seasonally adjusted data. Estimates for 2023 were revised in June 2024 as part of an annual review with the latest data available. All figures for monthly percentage change and annual percentage change are calculated prior to the input data being rounded.
It is anticipated that an update including new weighting will be introduced in forthcoming months. This will result in a break in series.
| Number of Employees and Employee Index, Monthly and Annual Changes, Seasonally Adjusted | ||||
| Period | Number of Employees | Employee Index (Base year: 2019=100) | Monthly % Change | Annual % Change |
| March 2024 | 2,489,200 | 115.6 | 0.6 | 2.3 |
| February 2025 | 2,525,100 | 117.2 | -0.1 | 2.1 |
| March 2025 | 2,526,500 | 117.3 | 0.1 | 1.5 |
The seasonally adjusted index increased by 1.5% in March 2025 when compared with March 2024. March 2021 was the last month to show an annual decrease in the employee index (-11.0%).
On an annual basis, the index for females increased by 1.3%, and for males was up by 1.9%. The monthly index decreased by 0.1% for females and 0.2% for males in March 2025.
With the exception of the 15-19 years age category (-5.6%), all age groups saw annual increases in the employee index. The age groups with the largest annual rise in employees were the 60-64 years age group (+5.2%), followed by those aged 65 years and over (+3.9%).
Four NACE sectors saw an annual decrease in the employee index when compared with March 2024 – the largest were in Accommodation & Food Services Activities (-1.4%) and Transportation & Storage (-0.6%). All other NACE sectors observed increases in the annual index, with the largest changes in Construction (+4.4%), Industry (B to E) (+3.8%), and Human Health & Social Work Activities (+3.5%).
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (16 May 2025) published Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data, March 2025.
Commenting on the release, Aoife McHugh, Statistician in the Labour Market & Earnings Division, said:
“Five NACE sectors saw a monthly increase in the numbers employed in March 2025, one was unchanged, while nine sectors showed a decrease. The sector that observed the largest monthly fall was Services (T, U) (-2.2%). The largest monthly increase was in Administrative & Support Services (+0.5%). It should be noted that Services (T, U) is the smallest sector, with 4,400 employees in March 2025.
The 60-64 years category saw the largest monthly rise in employees in March 2025 (+0.3%).
The seasonally adjusted annual index went up by 1.5% between March 2024 and March 2025.”
Data from this release supplements data published in the Labour Force Survey (LFS) quarterly series, which is the official measure of both employment and unemployment for the State. Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data are of relevance to LFS Seasonally Adjusted Estimates and Employment outputs.