On the 20th February 2025, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) published the Labour Force Survey (LFS) for Quarter 4 2024, which covers the months October to December.
Unemployment
In this quarter 116,100 people were unemployed, a decrease of 1,600 people from the same quarter in 2023. The unemployment rate in Q3 2024 was 4%, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points (ppt) over the year.
The unemployment rate for women was 3.8%, 0.5 ppts higher than the same quarter in 2023. The unemployment rate for men was 4.3%, 0.2 ppt higher than Quarter 4 2023. Women accounted for 44% of the unemployed in Q4 2024, 4.8 percentage points lower than in Quarter 4 2023.
The unemployment rate for young people aged 15-24 years was 9.9%, an increase of 0.5 percentage points over the year. The unemployment rate for people aged 25-74 years olds was 3.2%, a decrease of 0.2 ppts from Quarter 4 2023. Young people accounted for 30.1% of the unemployed in Quarter 4 2024, an increase of 1.4 ppts.
The number of people deemed long-term unemployed (over one year) decreased by 4.4% over the year to 28,200 people. The long-term unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point to 1.0. Women accounted for 49% of the long-term unemployed in Q4 2024, an increase of 9% compared to Quarter 4 2023.
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 Q4 2024, PALF stood at 113,700 an increase of 7.5% or 8,000 people on Q4 2023. The CSO noted that “Of those who stated that they wanted to work but were not seeking work or available for work in Q4 2024, 25.0% said this was due to education or training. This compares to 27.3% a year earlier and 20.3% in Q4 2022. Persons not seeking work due to own illness or disability accounted for 32.0% of the total in Q4 2024, down from 32.3% in Q4 2023 and down from 39.5% in Q4 2022.”
Employment Figures
Over the year the number of people employed in Ireland increased by 2.4% to 2,892,500 people. Full-time employment increased by 3.9% to 2,195,700 people, accounting for 75.9% of those in employment. The employment rate was 74.3%, an increase of 0.3 percentage point over the year. Women accounted for 41.9% of people in full-time employment in Quarter 3 2024, 0.4 percentage point higher than Q4 in 2023.
Over the year part-time employment decreased by 11,700 people to 580,700: within this figure, part-time underemployment decreased by 9.9% to 125,900 people. In Q3 2024 women accounted for 67% of people in part-time employment, and 58.2% of people who were underemployed.
The Labour Force
Over the year the Labour Force rose by 2.4% to 2,892,500 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 (+55,800) and the participatory effect (+12,600).
The participation rate in Q4 2024 was 65.5%, up 0.1 percentage point on Q4 2023. 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 increased for men by 2.5% to 1,530,800 and for women by 2.4% to 1,361,700. The participation rate for people aged 15-24 years was 51.7%, a decrease of 1.8ppts over the year.