On the 21st May 2026, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) published the Labour Force Survey (LFS) for Quarter 1 2026, which covers the months of January-March.
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a continuous household survey carried out by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and is the official source for employment and unemployment estimates in Ireland.
Unemployment
In this quarter 141,800 people were unemployed, an increase of 17,600 (14.2%) from the same quarter in 2025. The unemployment rate in Q1 2026 was 4.9%, an increase of 0.6 percentage points (ppts) over the year.
The unemployment rate for women was 5.1%, an increase of 0.8 ppts from Q1 2025. The unemployment rate for men was 4.6%, 0.3 ppt higher than Quarter 1 2025. Women accounted for 50% of the unemployed in Q1 2025.
The unemployment rate for young people aged 15-24 years was 10.2%, an increase of 0.7 percentage points over the year. The unemployment rate for people aged 25-74 years olds was 4.2%, an increase of 0.6 ppts from Quarter 1 2025. Young people accounted for 24.2% of the unemployed in Quarter 1 2026, a decrease of 2.5 ppts.
The number of people deemed long-term unemployed (over one year) increased by 0.2 percentage points over the year to 1.4%, amounting to 41,300 people. Women accounted for 47.2% of the long-term unemployed in Q1 2025, a decrease of 3.5ppts compared to Quarter 1 2025.
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 Q1 2026, PALF stood at 103,700, a decrease of 14,300 from a year earlier.
The CSO noted that “Of those who stated that they wanted to work but were not seeking work or available for work in Q1 2026, 27.8% said this was due to education or training. This compares to 29.5% a year earlier. Persons not seeking work due to own illness or disability accounted for 32.7% of the total in Q1 2026, up from 31.7% in Q1 2025.”
Employment Figures
Over the year the number of people employed in Ireland remained stable; 2,794,500 people are in employment. The employment rate was 73.3%, a decrease of 1.4 percentage points over the year. Full-time employment increased by 1.5% to 2,233,000 people, accounting for 79.9% of those in employment. Women accounted for 41.6% of people in full-time employment in Quarter 1 2025, 0.2 percentage points lower than Q1 in 2025.
Over the year part-time employment decreased by 31,900 people to 561,500: within this figure, part-time underemployment slightly increased by 2,400 to 133,700 people. In Q1 2026 women accounted for 67.5% of people in part-time employment, and 62.9% of people who were underemployed.
The Labour Force
Over the year the Labour Force rose by 0.6% to 2,936,300 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 (+40,600) and the participatory effect (-22,600).
The participation rate in Q1 2026 was 65.0, a decrease of 0.8 ppts from Q1 2025. 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 0.4 ppts to 70.1% for men and for women decreased by 1.2 ppts to 60.1%.