Early school leavers were less likely to engage in the labour market in Q2 2018. Early school leavers are defined as persons aged 18 to 24 whose highest level of education attained is lower secondary or below and have not received education since. An early school leaver is twice as likely to be unemployed than another person aged 18-24 who is not an early school leaver. In Q2 2018, 18% of early school leavers were unemployed compared to 9% of other persons aged 18-24.  Conversely, other persons aged 18-24 were twice as likely to be employed than early school leavers. See Figure 1 and Headline table.

Higher educational attainment levels are linked with higher employment rates. Persons aged 25-64 years old with a third level qualification are more than twice as likely to be employed (85%) than those with no formal education/primary education (35%) in Q2 2018. Conversely, those with no formal education/primary education were more than three times more likely to be unemployed (14%) than those with a third level qualification (4%). The proportion of those aged 25-64 years old with a third level qualification was 47% in Q2 2018, while one in twenty (5%) reported that they had primary education/no formal education only. See Summary table.