On January 10th, 2024, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) published the Monthly Unemployment (MU) figures for December 2023. The Monthly Unemployment figures are estimated using trends in the Live Register figures based on data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), and are subject to revision. The LFS is published on a quarterly basis by the CSO and provides the official employment and unemployment figures.
According to the Monthly Unemployment figures 136,300 people were unemployed in December 2023, an increase of 16% on December 2022. The Monthly Unemployment Rate (MUR) was 4.9%, an increase of 0.6 percentage points over the year. 14,300 more men were unemployed in December 2023, and 4,900 more women. The Monthly Unemployment Rate for men increased by 0.8 percentage points to 5.1% and for women by 0.1 percentage points to 4.6%. Women accounted for 45% of the unemployed in December 2023, 3 percentage points lower than in the same month last year.
In December 2023, 52,300 people aged 15-24 were unemployed, 17,800 more young people than in December 2022. Their MUR was 13.4%, 3.4 percentage points higher than a year ago. Over the year, unemployment amongst young men increased by 44% to 25,800, and their unemployment rate was 13.2%, an increase of 3.1 percentage points over the year. Unemployment amongst young women increased by 60% to 26,400, and their unemployment rate rose by 3.8 percentage points to 13.6%. In December 2023, women accounted for 50.5% of those unemployed in this age category, a rise of 2.7 percentage points over the year.
The Monthly Unemployment figure for people aged 25-74 was 84,100, in November 2023, an 1.8 percentage points increase over the year. However, the Monthly Unemployment Rate (MUR) remained the same, at 3.5%. In this age category unemployment increased for men by 15% to 49,200, and their MUR increased by 0.4 percentage points to 3.8%. Unemployment declined for women by 13% to 34,800 women and their Monthly Unemployment Rate (MUR) dropped by 0.5 percentage points to 3.1%. Women accounted for 41.4% of those unemployed in this age category in December 2023, a decrease of 6.8 percentage points over the year.