The number of people employed in the State grew by 4 per cent in the third quarter of this year, as the rate of participation in the labour market has reached the highest levels seen since 2008.
The latest Labour Force Survey for the third quarter of 2023, published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Thursday, shows that the number of people aged 15-89 years who were in employment reached 2,655,900.
The number of people employed has grown by 101,600 (or 4 per cent) in the year to the third quarter and has risen by 12,900 since the second quarter of this year.
The largest quarterly increase in employment numbers was in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries, as the number employed in the industry grew by 12,500 between the second and third quarters.
Annually, the largest increase by numbers employed was in the information and communication sector, which has grown by an additional 17,300 people between the third quarter of this year and the same period in 2022.
The employment rate for people aged 15-64 years in the third quarter reached 74.1 per cent, up from 73.2 per cent in the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the labour market participation rate for people aged 15 and over was 65.8 per cent in the third quarter, the highest rate recorded since quarter three of 2008 and up from 64.8 per cent last year.
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About one in five (21.6 per cent) of those in employment worked part-time, and of those in part-time employment, 22.8 per cent viewed themselves as underemployed and said they would like to work more hours for more pay.
The estimated total labour force stood at 2,784,400 in the third quarter, a rise of 4.2 per cent on the same period last year.
The unemployment rate in the third quarter reached 4.6 per cent, up from 4.5 per cent in the same period last year. A total of 128,600 people between the ages of 15 and 74 were unemployed last quarter, up from 119,100 in the second quarter of 2023.
The rise in unemployment was more pronounced among males, as the male unemployment rate rose to 4.7 per cent in the third quarter, from 4.2 per cent a year earlier. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for women rose from 4.6 per cent in the third quarter of 2022, to 4.8 per cent in the third quarter of this year.
There were 31,000 people in long-term unemployment (unemployed for at least a year) in the third quarter, a decrease of 800 people from the same period last year. The long-term unemployment rate remained unchanged at 1.1 per cent.
In the third quarter, the total amount of hours worked per week was 82 million, increasing by 2.1 per cent on figures from a year previously.
