On the 20th November 2025, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) published the Labour Force Survey (LFS) for Quarter 3 2025, which covers the months of July to September.
- The number of people in unemployment has increased by 20% over the year.
- The unemployment rate has returned to rates seen since the pandemic to 5.3%.
- Increased numbers in unemployment is driven largely by increases in youth unemployment and in the 35-44yrs age group.
- Part-time underemployment continues to increase (up 10.9%), with women being disproportionately affected.
Unemployment
In this quarter 155,400 people were unemployed, an increase of 25,900 (20.0%) from the same quarter in 2024. The unemployment rate in Q3 2025 was 5.3%, an increase of 0.8 percentage points (ppts) over the year.
The unemployment rate for women was 5.3%, an increase of 0.6 ppts from Q3 2024. The unemployment rate for men was 5.2%, 1.0 ppt higher than Quarter 3 2024. Women accounted for 48.0% of the unemployed in Q3 2025, 2.1 percentage points lower than in Quarter 3 2024.
The unemployment rate for young people aged 15-24 years was 14.1%, an increase of 2.6 percentage points over the year. The unemployment rate for people aged 25-74 years olds was 3.9%, an increase of 0.5 ppts from Quarter 3 2024. Young people accounted for 35.3% of the unemployed in Quarter 3 2025, an increase of 0.1 ppts.
The number of people deemed long-term unemployed (over one year) increased by 0.3 percentage points over the year to 34,400 people. Women accounted for 48.2% of the long-term unemployed in Q3 2025, a decrease of 1.2 ppts compared to Quarter 3 2024.
The Potential Additional Labour Force
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 Q3 2025, PALF stood at 119,200, decrease of 10,200 people over the year. The CSO noted that “Of those who stated that they wanted to work but were not seeking work or available for work in Q3 2025, 22.6% said this was due to education or training. This compares to 22.1% a year earlier and 17.5% in Q3 2023. Persons not seeking work due to own illness or disability accounted for 31.2% of the total in Q3 2025, down from 32.8% in Q3 2024 and 37.1% in Q3 2023.”
Employment Figures
Over the year the number of people employed in Ireland increased by 1.1% to 2,825,500 people. Full-time employment increased by 2.5% to 2,243,900 people, accounting for 79.4% of those in employment. The employment rate was 74.7%, a decrease of 0.6 percentage points over the year. Women accounted for 41.7% of people in full-time employment in Quarter 3 2025, 0.2 percentage points lower than Q3 in 2024.
Over the year part-time employment decreased by 4,100 people to 581,600: within this figure, part-time underemployment increased by 10.9% to 141,400 people. In Q3 2025 women accounted for 67.9% of people in part-time employment, and 63.9% of people who were underemployed.
The Labour Force
Over the year the Labour Force rose by 2.5% to 2,980,900 people. 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 (+49,200) and the participatory effect (+24,300).
The participation rate in Q3 2025 was 66.5%, down 0.1 percentage points from Q3 2024. 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 by 0.8 ppts to 78.5% for men and for women decreased by 0.5 ppts to 70.9%.