Irish employment growth slows
Employment grew by 1.1% year-on-year (y-o-y) in Ireland in Q3 2025 taking the number employed to over 2.825m, a new record high. However, quarterly growth was very modest, at just 0.1%. This means that following solid jobs growth in Q1, employment has been more or less flat for the past two quarters. While there were gains in the year in many sectors, jobs increases were fairly modest, apart from an unusually big gain in transport & storage, while the number of jobs fell in accommodation, ICT, public administration and agriculture. While we did expect employment growth to slow from the unsustainable rates seen during recent years this data is weaker than expected and somewhat at odds with other employment indicators such as employee payrolls, which is still indicating solid gains. The unemployment rate also increased last quarter, to 5.0% from 4.6% in Q2. The increase in unemployment appears, in part at least, to be driven by a sharp upturn in youth unemployment. Most recent survey data points to continued expansions in activity – though most recent hard data does indicate perhaps a weak summer – so, while disappointing, this data is still broadly in line with our view that employment growth had to slow.
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