The number of people working in Ireland has risen to more than 2.5m for the first time in official records, with nearly three-quarters of people between 15 and 64 in a job at the turn of the year.
According to data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), there was an increase of just over 10% in employment in the year up to the last three months of 2021.
The number of persons employed increased by 10.1% to 2,506,000 in the year to Q4 2021https://t.co/fkzhDDyhuH #CSOIreland #Ireland #LabourForceSurvey #LabourForce #Households #Families #IrishFamilies #IrishHouseholds #LabourMarket #LiveRegister #Jobs #Employment #Unemployment pic.twitter.com/ItZxVJqg5R
— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) February 17, 2022
The 2,506,000 people employed is the highest figure in the CSO’s data, having added 229,100 to those with a job over the yearly period.
In the jobs pool overall, when including those in receipt of Covid-19 supports such as the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP), there were 2.63m people in the labour force in the final quarter of 2021, an increase of 214,800, or just under 9%, for the year.
When it comes to unemployment, there were 127,400 between 15 and 74 without a job in the last quarter of 2021, or a rate of 4.9%. However, as in previous data, young people were disproportionately affected, with an unemployment rate of 10.2% for those between 15 and 24.
“While the unemployment rate for persons aged 15 to 74 stood at 4.9% in quarter four 2021, there were differences by age with a rate as low as 2.1% for those aged 65 to 74 years and as high as 14.8% for those aged 15 to 19 years,” the CSO said.
As stark as the differences are between the age groups, the rate of youth unemployment, although still high, did see a significant drop over the year, the data show.
“Those age groups also had the lowest and highest unemployment rates a year earlier but the rates then stood at 1.7% and 20% respectively,” the CSO said.
The number of people in work has exceeded the numbers employed in the months before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, the data also show.
“Comparing figures from now to two years ago, there was an increase of 6.3% or 148,700 in the number of persons in employment since quarter four 2019 when there were 2,357,300 persons in employment,” the CSO said.
Jobs increased in 12 sectors of the economy over the past two years, offsetting those ravaged by the fallout from the pandemic, such as the food industry. The likes of information technology (IT) and science drove the numbers up, according to the data.
The IT and communication sector was almost 31%, or 39,400, higher in the last three months of 2021 when compared to the same three-month period in 2019, while professional, scientific and technical activities sector were up just under 23% or 32,200.
Conversely, administrative and support services were down 14.6%, or 16,300 fewer in the fourth quarter of last year compared to the same period in 2019, while accommodation and food services dropped 9.7%, or 17,300, the CSO said.
Geographically, the Mid-West was the big winner when it came to job growth, the data show.
“The Mid-West region enjoying the largest percentage increase at 13.4% compared to the West region with the lowest at 6.6%,” the CSO said.
In relation to the number of hours worked overall, that has also seen a significant increase over the 12 months, according to the data.
The number of absences from work has decreased over the year, the CSO said, while there has been an increase of 9.6%, or 6.8m hours, worked per week to 77.6m hours in the fourth quarter of 2021.
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