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.
On an annual basis, the seasonally adjusted employee index grew by 1.8% to December 2023. The employee index for males rose by 1.6%, while the employee index for females increased by 1.7% for the same period.
The seasonally adjusted employee index rose by 0.1% in the month to December 2023.
The 20-24-year-old age group saw the largest rise in the monthly index to December 2023 (+0.8%).
The NACE sectors with the largest monthly rise in December 2023 were Construction and Public Administration - both increased by 0.3%. The largest monthly decrease was in the Services (T, U) sector (-1.4%). It should be noted that Services (T, U) is the smallest sector, with 4,500 employees in December 2023.
In the 12 months to December 2023, the Transportation & Storage 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 (just under five 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 |
| December 2022 | 2,406,600 | 111.7 | 0.5 | 5.9 |
| November 2023 | 2,446,700 | 113.6 | 0.1 | 2.1 |
| December 2023 | 2,449,100 | 113.7 | 0.1 | 1.8 |
The seasonally adjusted index increased by 1.8% in December 2023 when compared with December 2022. March 2021 was the last month to show a negative annual change (-10.9%) in the employee index.
The index for all persons increased by 1.8% in the 12 months to December 2023 - the female index grew by 1.7% while the male index rose by 1.6%. On a monthly basis the female index rose by 0.2%, while the male index grew by 0.1% in December 2023.
With the exception of the 15-19 years age category (-1.5%), 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 (+7.8%) followed by those aged 60-64 years (+4.3%).
Most economic sectors showed an annual increase in the employee index when compared with December 2022. The sectors showing the largest annual rises were Transportation & Storage (+5.8%), and Services (T, U) (+5.0%). Decreases were recorded in Information & Communication (-4.6%), Administrative & Support Service Activities (-1.6%).
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (20 February 2024) released Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data, December 2023.
Commenting on the release, Dr. Eimear Heffernan, Statistician in the Labour Market & Earnings Division, said:
“Six NACE sectors saw a monthly increase in the numbers employed in December 2023, four sectors decreased, while five saw no change. The largest monthly fall was in the Services (T, U) sector (-1.4%), while the largest monthly rises were seen in the Construction sector and the Public Administration sector, which both showed an increase of 0.3%.
The 20-24 years age group saw the largest positive change (+0.8%) in employment in the month to December 2023. All age groups observed growth in the month to December 2023 apart from the 25-34 years age group which showed no change.
On an annual basis, the seasonally adjusted index rose by 1.8% over the full year 2023.”
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.