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 decreased by 0.1%, while the index for females increased by 0.2%.
Taking age into account, the largest monthly decrease was observed in the 35-44 years age category (-0.3%).
The largest monthly increase by economic sector was in Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities (+0.6%).
The annual employee index rose by 1.9% to October 2025.
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 September 2025. 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 2024 were revised in September 2025 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 |
| October 2024 | 2,507,900 | 116.4 | 1.0 | 2.4 |
| September 2025 | 2,553,000 | 118.5 | -0.1 | 2.8 |
| October 2025 | 2,554,600 | 118.6 | 0.1 | 1.9 |
The annual index increased by 1.9% in October 2025 when compared with October 2024. March 2021 was the last month to show an annual decrease in the employee index (-11.1%).
On an annual basis, the index for females increased by 1.9%, and for males was up by 1.8%. The monthly index increased by 0.2% for females and it fell 0.1% for males in October 2025.
Two age categories, the 15-19 years (-0.6%) and 35-44 years (-0.4%), saw a decrease in the annual index. All other groups saw annual increases in the employee index. The age groups with the largest annual rise in employees were the 65 years and over age group (+8.2%), followed by those aged 60-64 years (+4.6%).
The sectors showing the largest annual increases were Construction and Public Administration & Defence (both +4.0%). The largest annual decrease was in Services (T, U) (-1.3%) – it should be noted that this is the smallest sector with 4,400 employees in October 2025.
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (12 December 2025) published Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data, October 2025.
Commenting on the release, Kevin Healy, Statistician in the Labour Market & Earnings Division, said: “Five NACE sectors saw a monthly increase in the numbers employed in October 2025, nine sectors showed a decrease, while one remained unchanged. The sector that observed the largest monthly fall was Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing (-1.4%). The largest monthly increase was in Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities (+0.6%).
The 65 years and over age category saw the largest monthly rise in employees in October 2025 (+1.4%).
The annual index increased by 1.9% between October 2024 and October 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. For more information on coherence between MEPEADS and LFS figures, see background notes.