This publication is part of a series of results from Census 2022. More thematic publications will be published throughout 2023 as outlined in the Census 2022 Publication Schedule.
The census unemployment rate is calculated as the number of people unemployed or looking for their first job as a proportion of all people aged 15 years and over who were either at work, unemployed or looking for their first job. This is based on the self-declared principal economic status of people completing the census.
The census unemployment rate in April 2022 was 8%, a fall from 19% in 2011 and 13% in 2016.
The unemployment rate for males was just under 9%, for females it was 8%.
In April 2022, people aged 15 to 24 years had the highest rate of unemployment among 10 year age groups, at 16%.
A fall in the unemployment rate was recorded in every age group. The largest fall since 2011 was among males aged 15 to 24 years, from 45% to 17% in 2022.
The unemployment rate among females aged 15 to 24 also fell but from a lower rate in 2011, 32%, to 15% in 2022.
Among those aged under 65 years, the lowest unemployment rate was recorded in the 45 to 54 years age cohort, at 7%. This age group also had the lowest rate in 2011.
In 2022, a new category was added to the question on principal economic status to distinguish people who were short-term unemployed (less than 12 months) from those who were long-term unemployed (12 months or more).
The long-term unemployment rate in April 2022 was 4%, the short-term rate was 3% and a further 1% were seeking their first job.
The highest prevalence of people looking for their first job was among 15 to 24 year olds at 7%. It should be noted, however, that the number of people in the labour force in this age group was low (nearly 215,000) compared with the other age groups.
Short-term unemployment was highest among 15 to 24 year olds at 5%, decreasing with age to under 3% among those in their mid-thirties and older.
Among those aged under 65, long-term unemployment was highest in the 55 to 64 years age group at 6% and lowest among 15 to 24 year olds at 3%.
For people aged between 25 and 54, the long-term unemployment rate was around 4%.
Younger males and females aged between 15 and 24 years had a comparatively high short-term unemployment rate of 5%.
For both males and females, the highest long-term unemployment rate was in the 55 to 64 years age group, both at 6%.
In April 2022, counties Louth, Longford and Donegal had the highest unemployment rates, each at 11%. Cork County and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown had the lowest unemployment rates, both at 6%.
Donegal and Louth also had the highest rates of long-term unemployment, both at 6%.
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and Cork County had the lowest long-term unemployment rates, both at 3%.
The short-term unemployment rate was highest in Longford, Galway, Donegal, Kerry and Louth at just over 3% while the lowest rates were in Cork County and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown at just under 2%.
The percentage of people looking for a first job was highest in Longford and Louth at 2%.
Among towns with at least 1,500 people, Ballaghaderreen in County Roscommon had the highest unemployment rate at 24%, followed by Lifford in Donegal (22%) and Kilrush in Clare (20%). Watergrasshill (Cork), Portmarnock (Dublin), Bearna (Galway), Malahide (Dublin) and Crosshaven (Cork) had the lowest unemployment rates, all below 5%.
Lifford (Donegal) had the highest long-term unemployment rate at 12%, followed by Belturbet (Cavan) and Ballaghaderreen (Roscommon), both at 11%.
The towns with the lowest long-term unemployment rates were Dunboyne (Meath), Bearna (Galway) and Portmarnock (Dublin), all with a rate of 2% and under.
The towns with the highest rate of short-term unemployment were Portumna (Galway), Ballaghaderreen (Roscommon), Lifford and Bundoran (Donegal), all with a rate of 6%.
Watergrasshill in County Cork, Stamullen and Enfield, both in Meath, had the lowest short-term unemployment rates at 1%.
The towns with the highest proportion of people seeking their first job were Ballaghaderreen (Roscommon) at 7%, Lifford (Donegal) and Kilrush (Clare), both at 5%.
Socio-economic group (SEG) classifies the population into one of ten categories. More information is available in the Background Notes.
The highest rate of unemployment, after the Other category of SEG, was for the Unskilled workers at 16%.
Unskilled workers also had the highest long and short-term unemployment rates, 9% and 5% respectively.
The lowest unemployment rates were among Farmers and Higher professionals, both at 2%. They also had the lowest long-term and short-term rates, both at 1% or below.
In 2022, of the unemployed people who had lost or given up their previous job, 118,875 stated their previous occupation.
The occupation group with the largest number unemployed in 2022 was Elementary administrative and service occupations with nearly 16,000 people followed by Sales occupations (11,603 people).
The Elementary administration and service occupations group also had the highest number of unemployed people in 2016.
The occupation group with the highest number of unemployed people in 2011 was Skilled construction and building trades (47,722 people). In 2022, there were only 6,727 unemployed people who had previously worked in this occupation group.
The occupation groups with the lowest number of unemployed people in 2022 were Protective service occupations and Health and social care professionals with around 1,000 or fewer unemployed people having previously worked in these areas.
In general, the rate of unemployment was higher among people with lower levels of education.
In April 2022, unemployment rates were highest for those with just a primary level of education at 22% and lowest for those with a third-level degree or higher at 4%.
Every education category saw a fall in the unemployment rate over time, with the largest decrease recorded among those with a lower secondary education from 29% in 2011 to 14% in 2022.
| 2011 | 2016 | 2022 | |
| Primary (incl. no formal education) | 35.99 | 32.52 | 21.83 |
| Lower secondary | 29.09 | 21.93 | 14.19 |
| Upper secondary | 20.24 | 14.23 | 9.77 |
| Third level (non-degree) | 14.98 | 8.15 | 5.61 |
| Third level (degree or higher) | 7.28 | 4.77 | 3.78 |
| Not stated | 24.42 | 15.64 | 13.46 |
Among unemployed people in 2022, 21% had a third-level qualification or higher while 44% of people at work were educated to the same level.
Among people looking for their first job, 24% had a third-level degree or higher and a further 7% had a third-level qualification that was not a degree.
A quarter of people who were in short-term unemployment had a third-level degree or higher and a further 11% had a non-degree third-level qualification.
For the long-term unemployed, the proportion with a third-level qualification was lower than the other categories of unemployed people, at 16%.
The proportion of people in long-term unemployment with lower secondary-level education or below was 35% which was much higher than among those in short-term unemployment (19%), seeking their first job (25%) or at work (12%).
In 2022, there were 596,849 people aged 15 years and over who spoke a language other than English or Irish at home. Among these, the unemployment rate was 9%, down from 21% in 2011. In general, the unemployment rate increased as the ability to speak English decreased.
Among those who could speak English very well, 8% were unemployed which was the same as the overall census unemployment rate.
The unemployment rate for those who could not speak English at all was the highest at 22%.
The unemployment rate decreased over time in each category of ability to speak English, with the largest fall recorded among those who could not speak English at all, from 38% in 2011 to 22% in 2022.
The unemployment rate among non-Irish citizens was 9% compared with 8% among Irish citizens.
The highest unemployment rate was recorded for Ukrainian citizens at 36%.
The next highest rates were among citizens of African countries at 15% and citizens of Other Asian countries (excluding India and China) at 13%.
The lowest unemployment rate was among German citizens at 5%.
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