New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.7% in January after data for the preceding months were revised down.
The CSO said the jobless rate for December was revised to 4.7% from 5% previously, with similar revisions applied to data for October and November.
Today’s CSO figures show that the monthly unemployment rate for men was 4.8% in January, unchanged from the revised December rate, and up from 4.5% recorded in January 2025.
The monthly jobless rate for women stood at 4.5%, unchanged from the revised December rate, and also higher from the rate of 4.4% in January of last year.
Meanwhile, the youth unemployment rate rose to 11.8%, up from a revised rate of 11.4% in December.
The CSO said the seasonally adjusted number of people unemployed was 138,400 in January, compared with 137,800 in December 2025.
There was an increase of 8,600 in the seasonally adjusted number of people unemployed in January of this year compared with January 2025, the CSO added.
Commenting on today’s figures, Jack Kennedy, senior economist at hiring platform Indeed, said the latest revisions by the CSO show a somewhat brighter picture than the figures previously reported.
“The new figures show the unemployment rate reached 5% in July of last year but then dropped to 4.9% in August, and has remained below 5% since then. It means the rate remained below 5% for all but one month of 2025,” Mr Kennedy said.
The economist said the revised figures come amid ongoing concerns about the pace of Irish job creation as firms continue to be cautious when it comes to investment plans and amid an ongoing general slowdown in economic activity.
“Expected employment growth of 2.1% in 2025 is predicted to fall to 1.9% this year and 1.8% next year,” he noted.
“Despite concerns about the gradual cooling of the overall labour market, Indeed’s data shows that job postings, a real-time measure of employer demand, have stabilised in recent months,” he said.
“As of January 30, the Indeed Job Postings Index for Ireland was 9% above its February 1, 2020 pre-pandemic level, having remained at or about this level since April of last year,” he added.
