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Economic Sector and Firm Size

Economic Sector and Firm Size

The Information & Communication sector recorded the highest median weekly earnings in 2023 at €1,356.59

Online ISSN: 2009-9886
CSO statistical release, , 11am

Economic Sector

Median weekly earnings increased by 4.2% from €670.90 in 2022 to €699.28 in 2023. The Information & Communication sector recorded the highest median weekly earnings in 2023 at €1,356.59, where median earnings were €1,474.19 for males and €1,157.11 for females. The Financial, Insurance & Real Estate sector had the next highest median weekly earnings at €977.34. The lowest median earnings were in the Accommodation & Food sector at €364.31 (See Table 3.3).

Median weekly earnings in the public sector stood at €964.30 in 2023, up 3.6% from €930.51 in 2022. In the private sector median weekly earnings were recorded at €632.82 in 2023, up 5.2% from €601.47 in 2022.

Mean weekly earnings stood at €895.51 in 2023. The sector with the highest mean weekly earnings was Information & Communication at €1,703.39 in 2023 followed by the Financial, Insurance & Real Estate sector at €1,317.36. The Accommodation & Food sector recorded the lowest mean earnings at €409.73 (See Table 3.2).

X-axis labelMedianMean
Industry (B-E)837.271066.27
Construction (F)742.05826.76
Wholesale & retail (G)519.97671.23
Transportation & storage (H)716.06833.72
Accommodation & food (I)364.31409.73
Information & communication (J)1356.591703.39
Financial & real estate (K-L)977.341317.36
Professional & technical (M)861.581134.82
Admin & support service (N)600.56765.44
Public admin & defence (O)962.931061.82
Education (P)854.27908.08
Health & social (Q)742.66857.32
Arts & entertainment (R-S)426.66540.82
All sectors699.28895.51
Table 3.1 Percentage change in employment and earnings by economic sector, 2020 - 2023

Table 3.2 Mean weekly earnings by economic sector, public/private sector status and sex, 2021 - 2023

Table 3.3 Median weekly earnings by economic sector, public/private sector status and sex, 2021 - 2023

Annual Percentage Change in Median Weekly Earnings

Table 3.4 below presents the annual percentage change in median weekly earnings for employments that were active in October of each reference year i.e. where the employee is in the same employment, in October of the reference year, for both years being analysed. For example, for 2020 - 2021 only employments that existed in October in both 2020 and 2021 were included for analysis. If an employment existed in October 2020 but not October 2021, or vice-versa, then it was excluded from analysis.

Almost three-quarters (74.5%) of employments active in 2022, remained active into 2023. Of those continuously active employments, median weekly earnings increased by 6.8%.

Table 3.4 Analysis of continuously active employments by economic sector, 2020 - 2023

Firm Size

Median weekly earnings were highest in enterprises with 1,000 or more employees at €925.40 in 2023, an increase of 4.1% from €888.53 in 2022, with median male earnings at €1,021.83 and females at €865.09 in 2023 (See Table 3.6 and Figure 3.2).

Enterprises with 1,000 or more employees also recorded the highest mean weekly earnings at €1,107.62 in 2023, with males recording a mean of €1,263.88 and females a mean of €992.21. Enterprises with one to nine employees had the lowest mean earnings at €594.92 in 2023, with males earning a weekly mean of €702.24 and females €479.48 (See Table 3.5).

X-axis labelMaleFemale
1 to 9 employees571.15374.36
10 to 49 employees647.87449.85
50 to 249 employees740.86549.07
250 to 499 employees868.42687.45
500 to 999 employees905.06708.16
1000+ employees1021.83865.09
Total770.52623.22
Table 3.5 Mean weekly earnings by size class and sex, 2021 - 2023

Table 3.6 Median weekly earnings by size class and sex, 2021 - 2023