The employment rate for those aged 15-64 was 74.4% in Q2 2024, up 0.2 percentage points from 74.2% a year earlier, CSO data shows.

Those aged 15-89 in employment increased by 71,500 or 2.7% to 2,754,200 in the 12 months to Q2 2024.

There were 131,200 unemployed people aged 15-74 in Q2 using International Labour Organisation (ILO) criteria, with an associated unemployment rate for those aged 15-74 of 4.6%, up from 4.4% in Q2 2023.

Labour force

The estimated labour force (the sum of all aged 15-89 years who were either employed or unemployed) stood at 2,885,400 in Q2, a rise of 2.9% (80,500) from Q2 2023.

The estimated participation rate in Q2 was 66.0%, up from 65.7% in Q2 2023.

The female participation rate of 61.4% in Q2 is the highest recorded since the series began.

The estimated total number of hours worked per week in Q2 2024 increased by 1.7 million hours or 2.0% on Q2 2023 figures to 87.3 million hours.