THE NUMBER OF people in employment in Ireland rose by 89,900 in the 12 months to the end of March.

This 3.3% increase means that as of the end of Q1 of the year, some 2,794,100 people aged 15-89 were in employment.

The increase of 89,900 is composed of increases of 38,300 (+2.7%) for males and 51,600 (+4.1%) for females.

Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke remarked that female participation rates in the labour market have been “trending upwards and reached a new historic high”.

“My Department will continue to support workers throughout their careers, with initiatives to improve work-life balance and flexible working arrangements which encourages greater participation,” said Burke.

The figures were contained in the recent Labour Force Survey by the Central Statistics Office.

Elsewhere, the employment rate for people aged 15-64 years was 74.7% in Quarter 1 2025, up from 73.8% a year earlier.

Meanwhile, there were 124,200 unemployed people aged 15-74 years in Q1 2025 using International Labour Organisation (ILO) criteria, with an unemployment rate of 4.3% for this cohort, up from 4.1% a year previous.

The ILO criteria describes an unemployed person as someone who is out of work but available for work within the next two weeks and who has taken steps to find employment in the previous month.

Findings form the Labour Force Survey CSO CSO

Meanwhile, the estimated total number of hours worked per week across the first three months of the year increased by one million hours, or 1.2%, on Q1 2024 figures to hit 86.5 million hours.

Employment

Around 593,400, or 21.2%, of those in employment worked part-time.

However, 131,300, or 22.1%, of those in part-time employment were classified as underemployed, meaning they would like to work more hours.

In the 12 months to Q1 2025, the age group with the highest employment rate was in the 35-44 years age group (86.1%), which was up 2.2% from the 83.9% recorded a year previously.

The lowest employment rate by age was in the 15-19 year old cohort at 24.4%.

Meanwhile, over 60% of those in employment stated that they never work at home (1,749,600).

Of the 1,034,900 people who reported that they work from home at least some of the time, 554,500 said they usually (more than half the time) work from home, down from a peak of 846,700 in Q1 2021.

The largest increase in employment by sector was in Education, which rose by 21,500 people (9.3%).

The largest decrease in employment was in Wholesale and Retail Trade and Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles, which is down by 8,200 people (2.5%).

Meanwhile, there were 25,900 people in long-term unemployment – described as being unemployed for 12 months or longer – in Q1 2025, 2,900 fewer people than a year previous.

The rate of long-term unemployment was 0.9%, down from 1.0% a year earlier.

The Labour Force Survey is a continuous household survey and Colin Hanley, Statistician in the CSO’s Labour Market and Earnings Division said household surveys give a picture of the economic and social situation “with a level of accuracy that no one else can gain”. 

“If you are asked to take part in a CSO survey, please do so,” said Hanley.

“We count on you to take part in our surveys, and you can count on us to provide accurate statistics that reflect our society.”