Strong employment gains continue

There appears to be little sign of a slowdown in jobs growth in Ireland, with seasonally adjusted employment increasing by 0.8% quarter-on-quarter in Q2 2024. This follows similar gains in each of the preceding three quarters with total employment rising to new high of 2.75m. Job gains are broad based and, while the unemployment rate did tick up last quarter, driven by a rise in the labour force on foot of strong inward migration and increased participation, it remained low at 4.4%. With employment growth running at 2.3% in the first half of the year, our full year forecast of 1.7% now looks on the low side.

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Bank of Ireland Economics Weekly 23rd August 2024