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DATA FROM THE Central Statistics Office (CSO) released today shows that employment is at 73.5% for the second quarter of the year.
The Labour Force Survey Quarter 2 2022 found that employment for people between 15 and 64 was up from 68.4% in Quarter 2 of last year.
The number of absences from work (temporary layoffs from work, family leave, or holidays) during a reference week this quarter was 187,200, compared to a peak of 468,500 absences recorded in Q2 2020, largely due to the pandemic.
In the same time there was a 9.4% rise in the number of hours worked per week.
This equates to an extra 7.1 million hours in the year to Quarter 2 2022, bringing the number of hours worked per week to a record high of 83 million.
There were 119,900 people classified as unemployed this quarter with an associated unemployment rate of 4.5% for those aged 15-74, down from 7.3% from the same time last year.
31.8% of people currently unemployed have been unemployed for a year or longer.
Tánaiste, and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar reacted to today’s data by stating on Twitter:
“More people working in Ireland than ever. Unemployment at 21 year low. Will not take it for granted. Understand some businesses still struggling, will continue to help & see what more we can do to protect and create jobs and businesses, improve wages and protections.”
More people working in Ireland than ever. Unemployment at 21 year low. Will not take it for granted. Understand some businesses still struggling, will continue to help & see what more we can do to protect and create jobs and businesses, improve wages and protections https://t.co/CFs6a93snp
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) August 25, 2022
A further Tweet added: “Priority is a job for everyone that wants one. Particularly happy today to see really strong jobs growth in all parts of the country, with very significant growth outside of Dublin.”
The Midlands region had the lowest unemployment rate of 2.7%, while the SouthEast had the highest at 5.5%.
Commenting on today’s publication, a CSO statistician, said that the pandemic had caused major changes to hospitality workers in particular.
“Employment increased in the year to Q2 2022 across most economic sectors with the largest increase in the Accommodation & Food Service (+39.2% or +47,300 people ) sector. However, employment in this sector at 168,200 remains below the Q2 2019 level of 180,800,” he said.
”The 4.8 million hours worked per week in the Accommodation & Food Services sector, while up from Q2 2020 (1.2 million), remains below the pre-pandemic (Q2 2019) figure of 5.4 million.”
The number of people not in the labour force was 1,424,800 which was down 3.9% or 57,900 from a year earlier.
The number of people employed in construction increased by 40,000, or 31.4%, in the year to the second quarter of 2022.
In public sectors workers, there was a slight decrease in those employed in the civil service and in education from Q2 of 2021 to Q1 of this year.
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Full time employment used to guarantee a certain standard of living like the ability to afford a mortgage, own a car, pay for childcare and medical expenses. What does it even mean anymore when none of that is assured? Your ability to pay rent to a landlord? FG will herald full employment as a great achievement and a sign of prosperity but what percentage of our population are even able to meet their basic needs?
We live in a time where you can both have a stable, reliable full income and also be in poverty unable to afford the basics in life. This is even happening in some of the most fundamental, important jobs like teachers, nurses and Gardai. It’s a broken society.
@Rochelle: Well said Rochelle ! 100 % agree !
@Rochelle: very well put. Many low paid workers rely on grants and payments from the government to get by. HAP be a good example. Taxes subsiding the profits of companies and landlords. The system is not broken . It is working perfectly for those In FFFG WHO SET IT UP. They don’t see a housing crisis . It’s acute as the donkey said last week
@Rochelle: true, and we also live in a time where you can do f all from cradle to grave and get a free house, money, services and go off on a holiday (after working so hard at not working). Nuts.
@Rochelle: I’m sure Micheal Martin et. al. have the answers to many of the questions you have raised, if not instructions, after coming back from his trip to Davos.
@Rochelle: Ah now, full time employment never guaranteed you a mortgage or own a car. Yes, there are many problems in Ireland today but coming out with that sort of nonsense doesn’t help anyone.
@Rochelle: full time employment never guaranteed those things. Take off your rose tinted glasses of the past.
@Bri Lyons: just over 100k unemployed of which only 30% are unemployed more than a year. When you take out the number of people from there that have a very valid reason for not being in employment and then the ones with personal issues such as addictions or undiagnosed mental health problems you are left with a very small number of people heading off to the Costa del sol every year. Are you suggesting we remove all supports to those that need it because a small few milk the system and you are jealous of them? Try living that life and see if you’d rather it
@Rochelle: 20% according to research in May
@Gert McNulty: it’s not just low paid,I’m consider a high earner,I’m a single father with a mortgage,I’m entitled to nothing,I was better off on less money ten years ago when I was paying more in rent then my mortgage now.Something is seriously wrong.
@Daniel Roche: I agree with you. What used to be well paid jobs are now just about cutting it at the end of the month. Real wages versus inflation have not increased . Will people vote differently ? Will they protest? Will they riot? Probably not
@Rochelle: waiting for the shiners to declare FF FG did this. It was a global financial crisis folks!
And now a big push for the long term unemployed to get working and contributing.
@James1234: they don’t want to work….excluding the % that are genuinely unable
@James1234: no chance, unless the dole is dramatically reduced. I would like to see a 50% reduction for the long term sponges.
@James1234: longterm unofficially employed.
@James1234: In fairness, there are very few of them but if you want to go on believing that less than 0.5% of the adult population on €200 per week is breaking the country then off you go….
@James1234: the long term unemployed is a very small minority. In the overall scheme of things you will always have this. Yes it’s annoying for you and me to see but I also wouldn’t get too worked up by it. I don’t think they will ever reduce job seekers. You’d be opening huge can of worms. People would claim it’s affecting their health, mentality, standard of living etc which it would. I think the whole job seekers programme needs to be looked at. Maybe for the first 6 months after loosing your job, you get 70% of salary , reduce by 10% per month until your down to the €208 or something like that. Encourage people to get off the system as quickly as possible
@OConnelj: or food vouchers only no alcohol or tobacco and no foreign holidays
@James1234: too many people working the HAP system. Work 20 hours as a couple, you qualify.
@James1234:
That’s not how people are assessed for HAP.
Maybe you should look into these things before posting misinformation in the comments ..
@White Chapel: I am basing my comments on a house I have let to a couple for last 9 years and how they work the system.
@James1234:
It’s assessed on net income and candidates have to be on the social housing list before either can qualify for HAP. In some counties its as low as €30k/year for a couple to qualify.
But you don’t need to know about any of that James, you just keep the couple “working the HAP system” and let the taxpayer buy your house for you
There have never been more jobs in Ireland. Never been more people working. Anyone who’s been unemployed for over 2 years shouldn’t get any social welfare increase in next month’s budget. People who work, people who care for others, and those on disability should be prioritised.
@Daragh Cassidy: separate the Disability allowance from the Jobseeker allowance for a start so that the people that need the state’s assistance can be helped in a targeted way
@Daragh Cassidy: To suggest that anybody, let alone those at the bottom of societies class system in Ireland, do not care for others exposes the level of your ignorance.
How many are on minimum wage and paying a grand in rent a month
That’s because everyone between the ages of 23 and 35 has emigrated.
@Máirtín Ó hUallacháin: no they haven’t , I and many others in that age range are still in Ireland .. so not “everyone”..
@Máirtín Ó hUallacháin: Incorrect, more people are returning than are emigrating. But keep believing the populist soundbites.
@Alan Byrne: I’m not so sure about that statement.
@David Corrigan: hea right. More Irish people are returning home. Cso says population up 88,000 with most returning Irish citizens. I’m presuming Ukrainian refugees make up the bulk of the rest.
@Jason Healy: the article a couple of days ago said 1 in 4 immigrants were Irish returning to Ireland
@Alan Byrne:
The number of Irish nationals returning is only slightly above the number emigrating and this rate has been the same (approximately 30k/yr) since 2017.
Not sure what makes this such a big talking point this year when it wasn’t in any of the previous 4-5 years when figures were almost the exact same
Is this really something to celebrate?
I took up a retail position during Covid, after being left go from a good paying job. Literally giving my all as a supervisor and in return getting the bare minimum, hardly enough to survive. There’s plenty of jobs out there, but so many of these are min wage, the minimum wage is not enough to cover the cost of living any more.
@Mark Walsh: 8% of the workforce work on minimum wage, just for context
@NotMyIreland: Wonder how that percentage compares to 1998 ?
And still we’re in the $hit!
Always found it bizarre why all this work needs to be done. There is no natural law that demands a 40 hr week however some think it is a god given right. What are we working towards? Why does it need to be always done before Christmas? Would we be better off working somewhere else?
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