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Number in work goes up 70,000 over a year

The employment rate for those aged 15-64 was 74.3% in the final quarter (Q4) of last year – up 0.3 percentage points from 74% a year earlier.

The number aged 15-89 in employment rose by 70,000 or 2.6% to 2,776,400 people in the 12 months to Q4, CSO data shows.

Criteria

There were 116,100 people unemployed aged 15-74 in Q4 using International Labour Organisation (ILO) criteria, with an associated unemployment rate for those aged 15-74 of 4.0% – down from 4.2% in Q4 2023.

The estimated labour force (all aged 15-89 years who were either employed or unemployed) stood at 2,892,500 in Q4 2024 – up 2.4% (68,400) from Q4 2023.

The estimated labour market participation rate in Q4 2024 was 65.5% – up from 65.4% in Q4 2023.

The estimated total hours worked per week in Q4 2024 increased by 3.1 million hours (3.8%) on Q4 2023 figures to 85.6 million hours.