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Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data April 2023

The Monthly Employee Index increased by 2.7% in the 12 months to April 2023

Online ISSN: 2811-5791

CSO statistical publication, 15 June 2023, 11am

A CSO Frontier Series Output

This publication is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources.

Key Findings

The seasonally adjusted employee index rose by 0.2% in the month to April 2023.
On an annual basis the index increased by 2.7% to April 2023. The female employee index rose by 2.9%, while the male index was up by 2.3% for the same period.
The employee indices of those aged 15-19 years and 35-44 years both observed a monthly decline of 0.1% in April 2023. The 45-54 years age group saw no monthly change. All other age groups saw an increase in April 2023, with the largest increases observed in the 20-24 years category (+0.7%) and the 65 and over category (+0.4%).
The NACE economic sectors that observed the largest monthly positive changes in April 2023 were Accommodation & Food Service Activities (+1.0%), followed by Financial, Insurance & Real Estate Activities (+0.7%). The largest monthly decline (-1.1%) occurred in Construction.
In the 12 months to April 2023, the Financial, Insurance & Real Estate Activities sector saw the largest rise in the number of employees (+7.1%).

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (15 June 2023) released Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data, April 2023.

Commenting on the release, John Mullane, Statistician in the Labour Market & Earnings Division, said:

“Five NACE sectors saw monthly decreases in the numbers employed in April 2023 while three remained unchanged. The largest monthly fall was seen in Construction (-1.1%). The remaining seven sectors showed a monthly increase, with the largest monthly rise in Accommodation & Food Services Activities (+1.0%).

Five age groups showed monthly increases while one remained unchanged. Those aged 15-19 and those aged 35-44 both observed a monthly decline in their indices of 0.1% in April 2023. The largest rise was observed in the 20-24 year category (+0.7%).”

Data from this publication supplement those in the Labour Force Survey (LFS) quarterly series, which is the official measure of both employment and unemployment for the State. Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data are of particular relevance to LFS Seasonally Adjusted Estimates and Employment outputs.

Seasonal Adjustment

The Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data release is a very short time series (four years of monthly data) and is thus at the lower limit of acceptable length for the seasonal adjustment process. In the short term, care should be taken in interpreting the seasonally adjusted output. Users should be aware that there is increased uncertainty around the seasonally adjusted figures during the COVID-19 period due to the volatility of the data. Non-seasonally adjusted data are available on PxStat.

Revisions and Rounding

The Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data is published as a 'Frontier' release, therefore the methodology and data are subject to revision. As more data become available, due to later transmissions from employers, the series may change from month to month. As this particularly affects the most recent months, figures should be considered provisional for the two most recent months for the non-seasonally adjusted data. 2022 estimates were revised this month with the latest available data. All figures for monthly percentage change and annual percentage change are calculated prior to the input data being rounded.

Headline Table

Number of Employees and Employee Index, Monthly and Annual Changes, Seasonally Adjusted
Period	Number of Employees	Employee Index (Base year: 2019=100)	Monthly % Change	Annual % Change
April 2022	2,383,100	110.6	0.9	17.1
March 2023	2,441,100	113.3	0.5	3.4
April 2023	2,446,500	113.6	0.2	2.7

Open in Excel: Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data April 2023 Headline Table (XLS 10KB)

Employee Index Totals, Seasonally Adjusted

The seasonally adjusted index increased by 2.7% in April 2023 when compared with April 2022. March 2021 was the last month to show a negative annual change (-10.7%) for the employee index when compared with the previous year.

Table 1 Employee Index and Total Number of Employees, Seasonally Adjusted

Employee Index by Sex, Seasonally Adjusted

The female and male indices grew on an annual basis by 2.9% and 2.3% respectively. On a monthly basis, the female index rose by 0.2%, while the male index fell by 0.1% in April 2023.

Table 2 Employee Index by Sex, Seasonally Adjusted

Table 2a Number of Employees by Sex, Seasonally Adjusted

Table 2a Number of employees by Sex, Seasonally Adjusted
		Male			Female			Both Sexes
Year	Month	Number of Employees	Monthly % Change	Annual % Change	Number of Employees	Monthly % Change	Annual % Change	Number of Employees	Monthly % Change	Annual % Change
2021	April	1,033,300	1.7	4.3	993,000	1.8	4.3	2,035,900	1.8	4.3
	May	1,062,800	2.9	8.2	1,027,700	3.5	13.7	2,096,000	3.0	10.8
	June	1,085,900	2.2	8.0	1,050,900	2.3	13.1	2,137,100	2.0	10.4
	July	1,098,500	1.2	5.4	1,065,300	1.4	8.7	2,163,800	1.3	7.0
	August	1,105,300	0.6	4.6	1,067,200	0.2	7.3	2,170,000	0.3	5.9
	September	1,118,800	1.2	6.1	1,077,700	1.0	7.5	2,191,800	1.0	6.8
	October	1,131,100	1.1	7.1	1,092,200	1.3	8.7	2,220,200	1.3	7.9
	November	1,138,600	0.7	10.3	1,102,800	1.0	13.7	2,230,800	0.5	12.0
	December	1,148,200	0.8	8.0	1,114,600	1.1	9.5	2,258,700	1.2	8.8

2022	January	1,162,400	1.2	11.8	1,128,200	1.2	14.2	2,288,900	1.3	13.0
	February	1,175,300	1.1	17.6	1,147,700	1.7	19.7	2,326,400	1.6	18.7
	March	1,187,600	1.0	16.9	1,165,400	1.5	19.5	2,361,000	1.5	18.0
	April	1,195,800	0.7	15.7	1,178,500	1.1	18.7	2,383,100	0.9	17.1
	May	1,196,300	0.0	12.6	1,173,400	-0.4	14.2	2,375,100	-0.3	13.3
	June	1,192,800	-0.3	9.8	1,165,500	-0.7	10.9	2,359,900	-0.6	10.4
	July	1,190,500	-0.2	8.4	1,156,700	-0.8	8.6	2,346,200	-0.6	8.4
	August	1,192,200	0.1	7.9	1,154,100	-0.2	8.1	2,343,700	-0.1	8.0
	September	1,197,800	0.5	7.1	1,160,900	0.6	7.7	2,355,200	0.5	7.5
	October	1,198,500	0.1	6.0	1,163,600	0.2	6.5	2,358,000	0.1	6.2
	November	1,208,600	0.8	6.1	1,179,500	1.4	7.0	2,377,800	0.8	6.6
	December	1,211,700	0.3	5.5	1,183,600	0.3	6.2	2,392,100	0.6	5.9

2023	January	1,215,800	0.3	4.6	1,192,000	0.7	5.7	2,406,700	0.6	5.1
	February	1,222,500	0.6	4.0	1,202,700	0.9	4.8	2,427,900	0.9	4.4
	March	1,224,700	0.2	3.1	1,209,900	0.6	3.8	2,441,100	0.5	3.4
	April	1,223,300	-0.1	2.3	1,212,300	0.2	2.9	2,446,500	0.2	2.7
Source: PMOD Revenue Commissioner's Employee Tax Data

Open in Excel: Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data April 2023 Table 2a (XLS 13KB)

Age Groups

With the exception of the 15-19 years category (-2.5%), all age groups saw annual increases in the employee index. The age group with the largest annual rise in employees was 65 years and over (+9.0%) followed by those aged 60-64 years (+5.1%).

Table 3 Employee Index by Age Group, Seasonally Adjusted

Table 3a Total Number of Employees by Age Group, Seasonally Adjusted

Economic Sectors

All economic sectors showed an annual increase in the employee index when compared with April 2022. The sectors showing the largest annual gains were Financial, Insurance & Real Estate Activities (+7.1%) and Transportation & Storage (+5.4%).

Table 4 Employee Index classified by NACE Rev.2 Economic Sector, Seasonally Adjusted

Table 4a Total Number of Employees classified by NACE Rev.2 Economic Sector, Seasonally Adjusted

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Table 3 Employee Index by Age Group, Seasonally Adjusted
	Employee Index, (Base Year 2019=100)			Monthly % Change	Annual % Change
Age Group	April 2022	March 2023	April 2023	Monthly % Change	Annual % Change
15 - 19 years	140.7	137.4	137.2	-0.1	-2.5
20 - 24 years	115.5	116.3	117.1	0.7	1.4
25 - 34 years	105.1	107.6	107.8	0.2	2.6
35 - 44 years	104.7	107.0	106.8	-0.1	2.1
45 - 54 years	112.6	117.4	117.5	0.0	4.3
55 - 59 years	111.8	115.9	116.0	0.1	3.7
60 - 64 years	116.2	121.8	122.2	0.3	5.1
65 years and over	121.5	131.9	132.4	0.4	9.0
15 years and over	110.6	113.3	113.6	0.2	2.7
Source: PMOD Revenue Commissioner's Employee Tax Data

Table 3a Number of Employees by Age Group, Seasonally Adjusted
	Number of Employees			Monthly % Change	Annual % Change
Age Group	April 2022	March 2023	April 2023	Monthly % Change	Annual % Change
15 - 19 years	126,600	123,600	123,500	-0.1	-2.5
20 - 24 years	258,600	260,500	262,200	0.7	1.4
25 - 34 years	549,100	562,200	563,100	0.2	2.6
35 - 44 years	607,000	620,400	619,600	-0.1	2.1
45 - 54 years	488,900	510,100	510,100	0.0	4.3
55 - 59 years	177,900	184,400	184,500	0.1	3.7
60 - 64 years	117,500	123,100	123,500	0.3	5.1
65 years and over	52,700	57,200	57,400	0.4	9.0
15 years and over	2,383,100	2,441,100	2,446,500	0.2	2.7
Source: PMOD Revenue Commissioner's Employee Tax Data

Table 4 Employee Index by NACE Economic Sector, Seasonally Adjusted
	Employee Index (Base Year 2019=100)			Monthly % Change	Annual % Change
Sector	April 2022	March 2023	April 2023	Monthly % Change	Annual % Change
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (A)	107.3	108.8	108.4	-0.4	1.0
Industry (B to E)	107.3	110.6	110.2	-0.3	2.7
Construction (F)	114.5	118.3	117.0	-1.1	2.2
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (G)	106.8	108.3	108.2	0.0	1.4
Transportation and storage (H)	107.8	113.4	113.7	0.3	5.4
Accommodation and food service activities (I)	116.2	116.2	117.4	1.0	1.1
Information and communication (J)	119.3	124.0	123.9	0.0	3.9
Financial, insurance and real estate activities (K,L)	104.8	111.5	112.3	0.7	7.1
Professional, scientific and technical activities (M)	113.2	118.5	118.5	0.0	4.6
Administrative and support service activities (N)	109.2	111.9	110.9	-0.9	1.6
Public administration and defence; compulsory social security (O)	110.1	110.9	110.9	0.1	0.8
Education (P)	111.3	112.5	113.1	0.5	1.6
Human health and social work activities (Q)	110.5	115.2	115.7	0.4	4.7
Arts, entertainment, recreation and other service activities (R,S)	99.8	101.7	102.3	0.5	2.4
Services (T,U)	112.3	118.6	117.8	-0.7	4.8
Not stated	..	..	..	..	..

Aggregated sectors
Cultural and Creative Industries	101.7	103.7	103.8	0.1	2.1
Tourism Industries	114.7	115.2	116.2	0.9	1.3

All economic sectors	110.6	113.3	113.6	0.2	2.7
Source: PMOD Revenue Commissioner's Employee Tax Data

Table 4A Total Number of Employees by NACE Economic Sector, Seasonally Adjusted
	Number of Employees			Monthly % Change	Annual % Change
Sector	April 2022	March 2023	April 2023	Monthly % Change	Annual % Change
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (A)	27,900	28,300	28,200	-0.4	1.0
Industry (B to E)	254,600	262,400	261,600	-0.3	2.7
Construction (F)	130,800	135,200	133,700	-1.1	2.2
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (G)	377,100	382,400	382,300	0.0	1.4
Transportation and storage (H)	84,900	89,300	89,600	0.3	5.4
Accommodation and food service activities (I)	214,200	214,200	216,400	1.0	1.1
Information and communication (J)	120,900	125,700	125,700	0.0	3.9
Financial, insurance and real estate activities (K,L)	118,900	126,500	127,400	0.7	7.1
Professional, scientific and technical activities (M)	149,500	156,400	156,300	0.0	4.6
Administrative and support service activities (N)	157,600	161,500	160,100	-0.9	1.6
Public administration and defence; compulsory social security (O)	195,300	196,700	196,900	0.1	0.8
Education (P)	166,200	168,000	168,800	0.5	1.6
Human health and social work activities (Q)	266,300	277,700	278,900	0.4	4.7
Arts, entertainment, recreation and other service activities (R,S)	96,800	98,600	99,100	0.5	2.4
Services (T,U)	4,300	4,500	4,500	-0.7	4.8
Not stated	0	200	500	..	..

Aggregated sectors
Cultural and Creative Industries	35,900	36,600	36,600	0.1	2.1
Tourism Industries	228,700	229,500	231,600	0.9	1.3

All economic sectors	2,383,100	2,441,100	2,446,500	0.2	2.7
Source: PMOD Revenue Commissioner's Employee Tax Data

Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data April 2023