Number of people employed increased by 21,000 in Q2 2026
The number of people in employment increased by more than 21,000 in the second quarter of the year, compared to the same period last year.
There are now more than 2.8 million people employed, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The largest increase in employment by sector was in Education, which was up 6 per cent.
However, the largest decline was in the Professional, Scientific and Technical activities sector, which was down over 8 per cent.
The number of people aged 15 to 89 years in the labour force increased by 31,300 or 1.1 per cent to 2,990,200 people in the 12 months to Q2 2026.
The employment rate for people aged 15 to 64 years was 74.3 per cent in Q2 2026, down from 74.7 per cent in Q2 2025.
There were 151,000 unemployed people aged 15 to 74 years in Q2 2026 using International Labour Organisation (ILO) criteria, with an associated unemployment rate of 5.1 per cent, up from 4.8 per cent in Q2 2025.
The estimated labour market participation rate in Q2 2026 was...
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