Labour force breaks 2.5m barrier for first time

Surging growth in technology companies, healthcare and the public service drove the numbers employed to a record 2.5 million in the first three months of the year, official figures show.

The Central Statistics Office’s (CSO) latest Labour Force Survey shows that the number of adults at work grew 275,000, or 12.3 per cent, to 2,505,800 in the year to the first quarter of 2022.

The CSO said employment grew in 12 of the 14 key areas that it monitors.

Information and communications, which includes high-growth multinational and Irish technology companies, was one of the leaders.

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That industry employed 36,000 or 28.2 per cent more people in the first three months of this year than it did during the same period in 2020, according to the CSO.

The figures, published on Thursday, show that the numbers at work in the first quarter this year were 158,600 or 6.8 per cent higher than in the during the same period in 2020, the final three months before Covid curbs shut down many businesses.

Health and social work expanded slightly faster, adding 36,100 staff in the first quarter of 2022 over the same period two years ago.

Public administration and defence and compulsory social security, which covers a lot of State activities, had 18,200 more workers in the first quarter of 2022 over the same period two years earlier.

However, some businesses continued to feel a post-Covid pinch, according to the CSO.

Employment numbers in hotels, restaurants and pubs lagged its 2020 first-quarter total by 6,900 or 4.1 per cent during the same period this year.

Wholesalers, shops and auto repair businesses employed 7,500 or 2.4 per cent fewer in the first quarter of this year than during the opening three months of 2020.

More women than men joined the labour force in the first quarter, according to the CSO. Its figures show that 144,700 women took up jobs during the three-month period, against 130,400 men.

People in the Republic worked for a record 80.8 million hours a week during the first quarter as the labour force grew while absences fell.

The survey shows that 168,100 people with jobs took time out for illness, holidays or family leave during the three-month period, against 309,500 during same quarter in 2021, when Covid infection numbers were high.

CSO statistician Sam Scriven said the level of absence from work was at “its lowest level since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

There were 126,700 people out of work, amounting to an unemployment rate of 4.8 per cent. There were 110,000 workers without jobs in February 2020.

The CSO bases the survey on information gathered from random households during a sample week. Mr Scriven urged anyone asked to take part to do so.

“It means that when CSO figures are quoted you know they’re accurate, because you told us,” he said.