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Labour Force Survey Quarter 4 2022

24 February 2023 - 12:25 pm


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On February 23rd 2023, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) published the Labour Force Survey (LFS) for the fourth quarter of 2022, which covers the months October to December.

2,574,500 people were employed in this quarter, an increase of 68,500 on Q4 2021, and an historic high for Ireland. The increase in full-time employment accounted for 95% of the increase in employment. For the third quarter in a row over two million people were in full-time employment in Ireland. The employment rate was 73.2%, an increase of 0.2 percentage point over the year. Women accounted for 40.8% of people in full-time employment in Quarter 4 2022, down slightly on the same quarter in 2021, when the figure was 41%.

Part-time employment increased by 0.6% to 554,300. Women accounted for 69% of people in part-time employment. Part-time underemployment decreased by 7% to 102,400 people. In Q4 2022 and 2021, women accounted for 63% of people who described themselves as underemployed.

Over the year the Labour Force rose by 2% or 53,200 to 2,686,500. 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 (+72,400); and the participatory effect, which was negative (-19,300).

The participation rate in Q4 2022 was 64.6%, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points on the Q4 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 decreased for women from 60.1% to 59.3%, and for men from 70.3% to 70.1%. The participation rate for people aged 15-24 decreased over the year by 1.9 percentage points to 51.4%. People aged 60-64 saw the biggest increase in their participation rate, going from 59.2% in Q4 2021 to 61.9% in Q4 2022.

In Q4 2022, 112,000 people were unemployed, a decrease of 15,400 people over the year. The unemployment rate was 4.2%, a decrease of 0.7 ppt over the year. The unemployment rate for women was 4.4%, an annual decrease of 0.4 percentage point; while the unemployment rate for men was 4%, an annual decrease of 0.9 ppt. Women accounted for 49% of the unemployed in Q4 2022, an increase of 2.5 percentage points on the same quarter in 2021.

The unemployment rate for young people aged 15-24 years was 9.1%, a decrease of 1.1 percentage points over the year. Looking at the unemployment figures from an age and gender perspective, the unemployment rates for young men, ages 15-24 and 25-34, were higher in Quarter 4 2022 than they were for young women. While the opposite is the case in the age groups 35-44, 45-54, and 55-64.

The number of people deemed long-term unemployed decreased by 22.5% to 34,300 people, while the long-term unemployment rate decreased by 0.4 percentage points to 1.3%. The CSO notes, excluding people whose duration was not stated, that “Just under a third (32.9%) of unemployed persons were in long-term unemployment in Q4 2022 which is down from 36.7% a year earlier”.

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 Q4 2022, 147,100 people described themselves as unemployed, a decrease of 18,800 on Q4 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 Q4 2022, PALF stood at 59,900, a decrease of 43,600 people over the year.