A snapshot of Irish working life in 2022 based on data published by the CSO

group of workers at meeting

by HRHQ Editorial Team

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has just released Ireland 2022: The Year in Numbers – Part 1 Society & Environment. This release provides a glimpse of the volume and breadth of the work published by the CSO throughout the year and below are a few interesting highlights.

Education

When it comes to educational attainment, more than half (53%) of 25–64-year-olds in 2022 have a third level education, the highest level in the EU-27. The release published in November also showed that over the last 10 years, there has been an increase in the proportion of those aged 25-64 years old with a third level education, from 40% in 2012 to 53% in 2022.

A release in April showed that 80% of 2019 graduates were in substantial employment in the first year after graduation and their median or mid-point earnings was €555 per week.

Employment

A record rate of employment was recorded in Q2 2022 of 73.5% – the highest rate since the current series began in 1998. The number of people in employment increased by 3.4% to 2,554,300 in the year to Q3, while the estimated total number of hours worked per week in Q3 2022 was 80.3 million hours, up by 3.2 million hours or 4.2% on Q3 2021. The number of people employed rose by more than 650,000 over the 10 years to Q3 2022, and the number of unemployed people fell from just over 350,000 to 120,000 over the same period.

Job Satisfaction

According to a survey published in April, the majority of employees were satisfied with their job with more than one quarter (25.9%) saying they were very satisfied, while nearly two-thirds (63%) said they were satisfied. However, one in nine employees were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their job.

Remote Working

We are also changing how we work, as another survey also published in April showed that almost four in ten employees were remote working at some point during 2021, while only one in twelve (8%) workers had availed of some form of remote working pre-COVID-19. Almost three-quarters (74%) of remote workers surveyed said they felt they had more time on their hands while working remotely.

View the full release here