Annual number of people in employment continues to rise

The latest Labour Force survey from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows that the estimated number of people in employment in the fourth quarter of 2024 at just under 2.8 million, was up 2.6 per cent compared with the previous year.

The employment rate in the fourth quarter of the last year was 74.3 per cent, up 0.3 percentage points from 74.0 per cent a year earlier.

That said, there was a quarterly fall in the numbers in employment, which decreased by 18,400, but there was also a corresponding quarterly fall in the number of people in the labour force.

RecruitAuto.ie says that among the sectors with the largest decrease in employment was repair of motor vehicles & motorcycles, as well as in wholesale & retail trade, which was down 17,300, or 5 per cent. There was also a decrease in employment in administrative & support service activities.

Today’s CSO figures show that there were 116,100 unemployed people, with an associated unemployment rate of four per cent, down from 4.2 per cent the previous year.