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.
The seasonally adjusted employee index rose by 0.1% in the month to August 2023.
On an annual basis the index increased by 2.5% to August 2023. The female employee index rose by 3.0%, while the male index was up by 2.2% for the same period.
The largest positive change in the monthly index by age was seen in the 60-64-year-old-group (+0.3%), while the largest decrease was in the 15-19-year-old group (-1.3%).
The NACE sectors with the largest monthly increases in August 2023 were Accommodation & Food Service Activities (+0.6%) and Human Health & Social Work Activities (+0.5%). The largest fall was observed in Information & Communication (-1.0%).
In the 12 months to August 2023, the Financial, Insurance & Real Estate Activities sector saw the largest rise in the number of employees (+5.8%).
The Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data release is a very short time series (four and a half 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. The seasonal models were revised in June 2023. The models are being updated as part of the annual review process in accordance with the CSO and ESS (European Statistical System/Eurostat) guidelines.
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. All figures for monthly percentage change and annual percentage change are calculated prior to the input data being rounded.
| 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 |
| August 2022 | 2,364,100 | 109.8 | 0.4 | 8.3 |
| July 2023 | 2,422,000 | 112.4 | 0.0 | 2.9 |
| August 2023 | 2,424,200 | 112.5 | 0.1 | 2.5 |
The seasonally adjusted index increased by 2.5% in August 2023 when compared with August 2022. March 2021 was the last month to show a negative annual change (-10.9%) in the employee index.
The female and male indices increased on an annual basis by 3.0% and 2.2% respectively. On a monthly basis, the female index rose by 0.2%, while the male index rose by 0.1% in August 2023.
With the exception of the 15-19 years age category (-4.1%), 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 (+5.9%).
All economic sectors showed an annual increase in the employee index when compared with August 2022 except for Information & Communication (-2.4%) and Administrative & Support Service Activities (-1.3%). The sectors showing the largest annual rises were Financial, Insurance & Real Estate Activities (+5.8%) and Transportation & Storage (+5.3%).
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (11 October 2023) released Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data, August 2023.
Commenting on the release, John Mullane, Statistician in the Labour Market & Earnings Division, said:
“Seven NACE sectors saw monthly decreases in the numbers employed in August 2023, five increased, while three had no change. The largest monthly fall was in the Information & Communication sector (-1.0%), while the largest monthly rise was in Accommodation & Food Service Activities (+0.6%).
Employment was down for all those in the 34 years and under age categories in the month to August 2023, with the largest fall observed in those aged 15-19 years (-1.3%), followed by the 20-24-year category (-0.4%). There was no change in the 35-44-year age group. All groups 45 years and over saw an increase in employment, with the largest positive change observed in the 60-64-year-old group (+0.3).”
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 relevance to LFS Seasonally Adjusted Estimates and Employment outputs.