The Irish economy is now “technically at full employment” with the headline jobless rate put at less than 4 per cent in February.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 3.9 per cent in February, according to the latest data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
This was down from a rate of 4 per cent in January and on a par with the low jobless rates seen in the early 2000s.
The CSO’s monthly figures are, however, a forecast based on the latest live register data and previous Labour Force Survey (LFS) trends.
Nonetheless economists consider an unemployment rate of 4 per cent or less in Ireland as tantamount to full employment.
The latest figures suggest there is little slack in the Irish labour market despite the impact of higher interest rates and higher living costs.
The CSO said the seasonally adjusted number of people unemployed was 111,500 in February compared with 115,700 the previous month. The figures represented an annual decline of 5,600.
The CSO said the monthly unemployment rate for people aged 25-74 years was 2.8 per cent while the State’s youth unemployment rate (for people aged 15-24 years ) decreased to 11.3 per cent, from a revised rate of 11.8 per cent in January.
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The headline unemployment rate “shows the Irish labour market remains robust and is now technically at full employment, a record level previously reached in October 2000,” said Alexandre Judes, economist at hiring platform Indeed.
“The remarkable strength of the Irish labour market continues to result in relatively high levels of wage growth,” he said, noting an analysis of Indeed data last year showed Ireland’s year on year wage growth averaged 4.6 per cent while the figure at the end of last month was 4.9 per cent.
“This is higher than the 2024 average of 1.6 per cent in France, 3 per cent in Germany and 3.4 per cent in Italy, but lower than the average of 6.3 per cent in the Netherlands and similar to the 4.8 per cent recorded in Spain,” he said.
“Alongside the US and the UK, where wage growth is currently running at 3.1 per cent and 6.1 per cent, Ireland is one of the few countries analysed by Indeed where workers have benefitted from real wage growth with increases in pay exceeding inflation,” he said.
