On January 11th 2023, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) published the Monthly Unemployment (MU) figures for December 2022. The Monthly Unemployment figures are estimated using trends in the Live Register figures based on the most recent Labour Force Survey, which was published on November 24th 2022, and covered the third quarter of last year.
114,500 people were unemployed in December 2022, a drop of 14% over the year or 18,600 fewer people. The Monthly Unemployment Rate (MUR) was 4.3%, a decline of 0.8 percentage points. Unemployment decreased for both men and women over the period, by 11,400 and 7,200 respectively. Women accounted for 48% of the unemployed in December 2022, 1.35 percentage points higher than December 2021.
In December 2022, 38,500 people aged 15-24 were unemployed: 1,100 more young people than a year ago. Their MUR was 11.5% in December 2022, 0.8 percentage points higher than December, 2021. Over the year, unemployment amongst young men decreased by 300 to 18,100, and their unemployment rate was 10.4%, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points over the year. Unemployment amongst young women rose by 1,500 to 20,400, and their unemployment rate was 12.7%, an increase of 1.9 percentage points. In December 2022, women accounted for 53% of those unemployed in this age category, in comparison to 50.5% in December 2021.
The monthly unemployment figures for people aged 25-74 dropped by 20.6% over the year to 76,000 people, and their MUR decreased by 0.9 percentage points to 3.3%. Unemployment decreased for men in this age category by 21% to 41,000, and their MUR was 3.3%. Unemployment also declined for women, by 20% to 35,100 women and their Monthly Unemployment Rate (MUR) fell by 0.9 percentage point to 3.2%. Women accounted for 46.2% of those unemployed in this age category in December 2022, an increase of 0.5 percentage points over the year.