The number of people employed in the State has eclipsed 2.8 million for the first time, new figures show.
The latest Labour Force Survey (LFS) indicated employment rose by 63,900 (or 2.3 per cent) to 2.82 million in the second quarter of 2025.
This is equivalent to the entire population of the Republic in 1961.
Despite slowing global demand and increased trade uncertainty linked to US tariffs, the Irish labour market continues to perform strongly with ongoing demand for workers being met by increased levels of immigration and participation.
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The CSO said the labour force (the total number of people aged 15-89 years who were either employed or unemployed) stood at 2.95 million in the second quarter, up by 2.5 per cent (73,500) on the same period last year.
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Changes in the labour force are typically influenced by shifts in the size of the working-age population, also known as the demographic effect.
In recent years, this has been driven by immigration, which the CSO said added 49,200 workers to the labour force in the year to the second quarter.
Another driver was increased participation (by both men and women), which rose to 66.4 per cent, up from 66 per cent, contributing to a positive participation effect of 24,300.
The estimated total number of hours worked per week in the second quarter increased by 1.6 million hours to stand at 88.9 million.
The year-on-year change in hours worked varied across the different economic sectors, the CSO said. The construction sector saw an additional one million hours worked when compared with the second quarter last year.
The largest sectoral decreases in hours worked were in the accommodation and food service activities and the information and communication sectors, which were each down 300,000 hours in the year.
The data come in the wake of a separate report last week which indicated workers here were on average working two hours fewer a week than before pandemic.
According to the LFS, the sector that saw the largest year-on-year growth in employment was construction, which rose by 29,600 or 18 per cent.
The largest decrease in employment was in the information and communication sector, which fell by 7,700 people (-4.1 per cent).
The CSO said there were 140,800 people classified as unemployed in the second quarter which gave rise to an unemployment rate of 4.8 per cent, up from 4.6 per cent for the same period last year.
The survey indicated that an estimated 582,000 or 20.7 per cent of those in employment worked part-time, and 153,600 or 26.4 per cent of those in part-time employment were classified as underemployed, meaning “they would like to work more hours for more pay”.
Thomas Pugh from consulting firm RSM said: “Strong employment growth, enabled by a rapid rise in the labour force, has supported solid economic growth over the last two years.”
“However, there is now a clear risk that US tariffs on the EU, and especially the associated uncertainty around what the final arrangements on the crucial pharmaceutical sector will be, will derail that strong growth picture,” he said.
“Indeed, the pervasive uncertainty and damage to global growth from tariffs will be a drag on Irish domestic growth over the rest of the year, which will slow employment growth,” he said.
