In the fourth quarter of 2019, the number of people working fully in-person stood at 1.861 million. The labour force rose by 2.4 per cent, or 68,800 people, to 2,961,300 in the final quarter. In 2025, the age bracket with the highest employment rate was those between 45 and 54 years of age, at 85.3 per cent. In contrast, the cohort with the rate of employment was 15 to 19-year-olds, of which just over one-in-four held employment. He suggested “the LFS reading may reflect volatility in the data and overstate the contraction in ICT sector employment”.

Source: The Irish Times February 20, 2026 01:12 UTC