This publication is part of a series of results from Census 2022.
Principal Economic Status in the census measures whether people aged 15 years and over were at work, unemployed or not in the labour force. There was a very high level of non-response (59%) to the Principal Economic Status question which has a significant impact on the quality of the data and the comparability with the equivalent State figures. As with marital status, imputation for non-response is included in the State figures for Present Economic Status but not for the homeless population due to differences in the distribution of the data. The analysis here excludes the 'Not stated' category to improve comparability with the State population.
In order to provide additional insight, administrative data has been used to add the economic status of members of the homeless population for whom a census response was not received. This information is presented in the Background Notes.
Labour force participation measures the proportion of people aged 15 and over who were either at work or unemployed. This was 61% for the State population.
Based on the responses received to the census, 59% of homeless people aged 15 and over were in the labour force.
The labour force participation rate was 68% for males and 48% for females.
The number of people at work (776) represented 25% of the homeless population aged 15 and over.
There were 1,053 unemployed people, more than half of whom (606) were long-term unemployed (12 months or more).
Just over 450 people were unable to work due to permanent sickness or disability, 316 males and 141 females.
Among the homeless population, 394 people were looking after the home or family, 87% of whom were female.
The census question on the highest level of education attained was asked of people aged 15 years and over. As with Principal Economic Status, a very high level of non-response was recorded for the level of education question (50%) which should be considered when drawing comparisons with other population cohorts. The analysis here excludes the 'Not stated' category to improve comparability with the State population.
In order to provide additional insight, administrative data was added to correct the non-response, and this information is presented in the Background Notes.
Almost half of homeless people aged 15 years and over (3,754 people) provided information on their highest level of education.
Among these, 242 people had no formal education, with 259 people reporting a primary level education only.
A further 1,183 people had completed lower or upper levels of secondary education, while 414 people were educated to third level.
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