Employment in Ireland has increased by 0.8% to more than 2.8 million, driven by an increase in older age groups and citizens from across the world coming to work here, according to the Central Statistics Office’s latest Labour Force Survey.
The statistics for the second quarter relate to the second three months of this year.
The CSO figures show that the employment rate in Ireland for those aged 15 to 64 is currently 74.3%, down 0.4 percentage points on the year.
The unemployment rate was 5.1%, up 0.3 percentage points compared to the same period last year.
Those unemployed increased by 7.2% to 151,000, driven by a rise in female unemployment.
“There’s been a positive growth in the labour force for older age cohorts, with the largest increase among 45 to 54 year olds,” Colin Hanley, Statistician in Labour Market and Earnings with the CSO, said. This represented an increase of 28,600 people.
There was a simultaneous decline in Labour Force participation amongs younger age groups, with the largest decline in volume terms among 35 to 44 year olds, down 10,100.
Number of people working from home declines in Q2
The new statistics from the CSO Labour Force Survey also reveal a decline in the number of people working from home.
529,800 people said they worked “usually” from home in the second three months of this year, defined as at least 50% of their days’ work in the previous four weeks.
That was down 25,700 or 4.6% on the same time last year.
A further 460,800 were working from home “sometimes”, an increase of 3,200 from last year.
Those that said they never worked from home increased by 43,800 to more than 1.8 million.
Across the labour force, 89 million hours were worked per week in the second quarter of 20262, which was unchanged when compared to the second three months of 2025.
In terms of the volume change in employment by age groups, the largest positive contribution came from those aged 45 to 54, with employment increasing by 3.5% to 686,100.
There was also a 3.4% increase in those aged 55 to 64.
The largest decline was among those aged 35-44 down 1.7% to 690,000, driven by female participation in this age group.
Youth unemployment is down 1.3% to 321,000, with those aged 20-24 driving this downward trend.
The most jobs added were in the education sector, followed by transportation and storage and industry. Construction employment also increased.
The largest decline was in professional, scientific and technical activities, wholesale and retail trade as well as agriculture, forestry and fishing.
Today’s CSO figures also show that there were an additional 21,700 citizens from the “rest of the world” in the labour force in Ireland, compared to the same time last year.
The increase of 7.3% to 320,000 shows those coming from outside Ireland and the EU. Among that increase, 19,000 were in employment, whilst 2,700 were classified as unemployed.
EU citizens at work increased by 7,000 or 2.5% to 282,500 whilst Irish citizens increased 3,600 or 0.2% to more than 2.3 million.
Among this change, there was a decline of 100 Irish citizens in employment whilst there was an increase of 3,700 classified as unemployed.
Overall 1.5 million people here are categorised as being outside of the labour force, which is up 2.9% on the previous year.
This includes those who say they do not want a job, those who are unavailable to work and those over the age of 75 who are not active in the labour force.
The rate of 15 to 24 year olds not in employment, education or training was up slightly to 6.5%.
Long-term unemployment of over 12 months has also increased to 26.6% of all unemployed people.
Regionally, the unemployment rate was highest in the Midlands at 5.8%, followed by Dublin at 5.7% and the Border region at 5.6%.
All showed slight increases on the same time last year, the CSO noted.
