Irish Jobless Rate Falls to 9-1/2-Year Low

New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 6.2% in December 2017 from an upwardly revised 6.4 percent in the previous month. The unemployment Rate in Ireland averaged 10.98 percent from 1983 until 2017, reaching an all time high of 17.30 percent in December of 1985 and a record low of 3.90 percent in April of 2001.

The number of persons unemployed was 146,700 in December, down from 149,900 when compared to the previous month figure and a decrease of 26,900 when compared to December 2016.

The unemployment rate for males was recorded at 6.6 percent, down from 6.7 percent in November and compared to 7.6 percent a year earlier; while for females it was recorded at 5.8 percent, down from 6 percent the previous month and from 7.2 percent in December 2016. The number of males unemployed decreased by 1,100 from the previous month to 84,200, while the number of females unemployed fell by 2,100 to 62,400.

The figures also show that ten of the fourteen sectors of the Irish labour market are now growing employment on an annual basis. This broad-based growth has been a consistent theme for almost four years. The fastest growing sectors are Administrative and support services (+10% yoy), education (+9% yoy) and construction (+7% yoy).

The overall OECD unemployment rate was stable at 5.6% in November, with 35.1 million people unemployed.