On August 25th 2022, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) published the Labour Force Survey (LFS) for the second quarter of 2022, which covers the months April to June. 2,554,600 people were employed in this quarter: an increase of 205,500 on Q2 2021. The employment rate was 73.5%, the highest figure ever recorded. Full-time employment increased by 7% or 137,900 over the year to 2,010,500 people. Women accounted for 41% of people in full-time employment in Quarter 2 in both 2021 and 2022.
Part-time employment also increased by 14% to 544,100. Women accounted for 68% of people in part-time employment. Part-time underemployment decreased by 7% to 114,700 people, however it increased for women by 2.5% to 70,900. In Q2 2022, women accounted for 62% of people who described themselves as underemployed.
Over the year the Labour Force rose by 121,300 to 2,674,500. The labour force consists of people who are in employment plus people who are unemployed. Two factors influence changes in the Labour Force, the demographic effect, which was positive (+45,600); and the participatory effect, which had an even stronger impact (+95,700).
The participation rate in Q2 2022 was 65.2%, an increase of 2.1 percentage points on the Q2 2021. The participation rate measures the share of the total population aged 15 years and over who are in the labour force. Over the year the participation rate increased for women from 57.3% to 59.8%, and for men from 69.1% to 71%. The participation rate for people aged 15-24 stood at 55.1%, 18.2 percentage points higher than the same quarter in 2020. Over this two year time period the participation rate increases across all age groups, but not to the extent as it did for young people.
In Q2 2022, 119,900 people were unemployed: a decrease of 64,200 people over the year. The unemployment rate was 4.5%, a decrease of 2.8 ppt over the year. Looking at the unemployment rate over a two year period, it decreased across most of the age groups with the exception of people aged 35-44, where it is 0.4 percentage points higher; people aged 60-64 were it 0.7 ppt higher; and people aged 65-74 were it is 1.1 percentage points higher.
The number of people deemed long-term unemployed decreased by 36% to 31,800 people, while the long-term unemployment rate decreased by 0.8 percentage points at 1.2%. In Q2 2022, the long-term unemployed accounted for 26.5% of the overall unemployed figure.
The Principal Economic Status (PES) captures data on how people described themselves, for example whether they are at work or unemployed or a student or on home duties. In Q2 2022, 153,700 people described themselves as unemployed, a decrease of 65,100 on Q2 2021.
The Potential Additional Labour Force (PALF) captures people who may not fit into the official definition of unemployment, whereby people have to be actively seeking work for the previous four weeks and available to take up work in the coming two weeks of the survey. In Q2 2022 PALF stood at 84,400 people, a decrease of 93,800 over the year.