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 0.2% in the month to March 2023.
On an annual basis the index increased by 3.4% to March 2023. The female employee index rose by 3.7%, while the male index was up by 3.1% for the same period.
The employee index of those aged 65 years and over observed a monthly decline of 0.3% in March 2023. It was noted that four of the age groups showed monthly increases, while three remained unchanged for the same period. The largest increases were observed in the 20-24-year category (+1.2%) and the 15-19-year category (+1.1%).
The NACE economic sectors that observed the largest monthly positive changes in March 2023 were Accommodation & Food Service Activities (+2.0%), followed by Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Service Activities (+1.2%). The largest monthly decline (-3.2%) occurred in Services (T, U).
In the 12 months to March 2023, the Financial, Insurance & Real Estate Activities sector saw the largest rise in the number of employees (+10.3%).
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.
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 |
March 2022 | 2,344,800 | 108.9 | 1.4 | 17.3 |
February 2023 | 2,419,400 | 112.3 | 0.7 | 4.7 |
March 2023 | 2,423,800 | 112.5 | 0.2 | 3.4 |
The seasonally adjusted index increased by 3.4% in March 2023 when compared with March 2022. March 2021 was the last month to show a negative annual change (-10.8%) for the employee index when compared with the previous year.
The female and male indices grew on an annual basis by 3.7% and 3.1% respectively. On a monthly basis, the female index rose by 0.3%, while the male index fell by 0.1% in March 2023.
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%). Those aged 15-19 years increased the least of all (+1.0%).
All Economic Sectors, except for Services (T, U), which fell 0.4%, showed an annual increase in the employee index when compared with March 2022.
The sectors showing the largest annual gains were Financial, Insurance & Real Estate Activities (+10.3%), Accommodation & Food Service Activities (+6.5%), and Transportation & Storage (+6.4%). Data for two additional aggregated sectors are provided: Tourism Industries, and Cultural & Creative Industries. These sectors saw their indices rise by 6.5% and 2.6% respectively in March 2023 when compared with March 2022.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (12 May 2023) released Monthly Estimates of Payroll Employees using Administrative Data, March 2023.
Commenting on the release, John Mullane, Statistician in the Labour Market & Earnings Division, said: “Six NACE sectors saw monthly decreases in the numbers employed in March 2023 and two remained unchanged. The largest monthly fall was seen in Services (T, U) (-3.2%). It should be noted that Services (T, U) is the smallest sector, with 4,400 employees in March 2023. The remaining six sectors showed a monthly increase, with the largest monthly rise in Accommodation & Food Services Activities (+2.0%).
Four age groups showed a monthly increase and three remain unchanged. Those aged 65 years and over observed the only monthly decline in the index of 0.3% in March 2023. The largest rise was observed in the 20-24-year category (+1.2%).”
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.