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DATA FROM THE Central Statistics Office (CSO) released today shows that employment is at 73.5% for the second quarter of the year.
The Labour Force Survey Quarter 2 2022 found that employment for people between 15 and 64 was up from 68.4% in Quarter 2 of last year.
The number of absences from work (temporary layoffs from work, family leave, or holidays) during a reference week this quarter was 187,200, compared to a peak of 468,500 absences recorded in Q2 2020, largely due to the pandemic.
In the same time there was a 9.4% rise in the number of hours worked per week.
This equates to an extra 7.1 million hours in the year to Quarter 2 2022, bringing the number of hours worked per week to a record high of 83 million.
There were 119,900 people classified as unemployed this quarter with an associated unemployment rate of 4.5% for those aged 15-74, down from 7.3% from the same time last year.
31.8% of people currently unemployed have been unemployed for a year or longer.
Tánaiste, and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar reacted to today’s data by stating on Twitter:
“More people working in Ireland than ever. Unemployment at 21 year low. Will not take it for granted. Understand some businesses still struggling, will continue to help & see what more we can do to protect and create jobs and businesses, improve wages and protections.”
More people working in Ireland than ever. Unemployment at 21 year low. Will not take it for granted. Understand some businesses still struggling, will continue to help & see what more we can do to protect and create jobs and businesses, improve wages and protections https://t.co/CFs6a93snp
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) August 25, 2022
A further Tweet added: “Priority is a job for everyone that wants one. Particularly happy today to see really strong jobs growth in all parts of the country, with very significant growth outside of Dublin.”
The Midlands region had the lowest unemployment rate of 2.7%, while the SouthEast had the highest at 5.5%.
Commenting on today’s publication, a CSO statistician, said that the pandemic had caused major changes to hospitality workers in particular.
“Employment increased in the year to Q2 2022 across most economic sectors with the largest increase in the Accommodation & Food Service (+39.2% or +47,300 people ) sector. However, employment in this sector at 168,200 remains below the Q2 2019 level of 180,800,” he said.
”The 4.8 million hours worked per week in the Accommodation & Food Services sector, while up from Q2 2020 (1.2 million), remains below the pre-pandemic (Q2 2019) figure of 5.4 million.”
The number of people not in the labour force was 1,424,800 which was down 3.9% or 57,900 from a year earlier.
The number of people employed in construction increased by 40,000, or 31.4%, in the year to the second quarter of 2022.
In public sectors workers, there was a slight decrease in those employed in the civil service and in education from Q2 of 2021 to Q1 of this year.
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Now all we need is the GP’s
Must be an election looming.
@B1Chris: Damned if they do, and if they don’t
@SF Means Sh!t 4 Free: Along with a free house to go back to with free electricity and gas and a collection of money trees in the back garden. Those pesky earners over 100k can pay for it.
@B1Chris: why? Expansion of medical cards has been an ongoing policy, personally I’d prefer to see a nominal charge than have it for free.
@SF Means Sh!t 4 Free: FFG certainly are in a giving away mode as the election draws closer. The money tree FFG/ Greens stated didn’t exist suddenly appeared…The borrowing of Money that FFG / Greens stated would be imprudent suddenly went out the window…On top of the € 60 Billions still owed by the Irish people Seems FFG/ Greens are in panic mode… It was not so long ago the Blueshirt/ So called Labour tried to take back medical cards from the most vulnerable …Seem to remember it was connected to the austerity that was to repay for the gangsterism of the banks and developers facilated by FF/ Greens..Funny old world when the pox and the Plague plus the Greens now try to save themselves..Hypocrisy at it’s best
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@Jason Memail: If you move to many counties in Ireland you can’t even register for a GP, they are not taking anymore patients, so what is the point of extending the scheme until they fix the number of GP’s there are available?
One of the greatest bluffers of all time is this guy. Woeful.
@Chris Finch: back in the real world, he’s been one of most effective Ministers for Health in decades.
@Oisin CK: head on in to UHL and spin that tune to those dying on trolleys and their families. No hope, no dignity. That’s the real world my friend.
@Oisin CK: Ohhh ye deluded tool. Vote the MUPPET back in again to our detriment jayus.
@Chris Finch: Regular contributor on here, “The Risen”, called Stephen Donnelly “The best TD in the Dáil”.
What exactly is the income limit? This is a key element missing from the article
Good to know children after 8 years of age don’t get sick.
@Michaela Coelho: anyone can apply for the medical card or gp card. Its means tested & If youre eligble you will get it.
It’s aged up to 69 depending on income, 70 and over already have free GP cards.
That whole scheme is a joke. My daughter has to pay a GP privately (€60) per visit,because all GP’s lists in her area are full for her 1 year old. Obviously no way of claiming these private fees back either. She can drive 60 kms to our original family GP, but who does that with a sick infant. This latest announcement is just bs from government and I wish all those newly elligible good luck finding a doctor firstly and if they do, one that actually answers the phone to give you an appointment. The system is broken badly.
@John Merriman: we had the same issue with our twins,you need two refusals,you then go to the HSE,fill out a form accompanied by the refusal emails and they will assign you one,in our case we were assigned a gp practise who knocked us back in the first place,the mind boggles.
Vincent Browne had the measure of this Muppet
This is a rehash of the press release with the income details missing as contained in the press release on gov.ie
Just me or did anyone else just get a flashback to circa 2021 because of that thumbnail. “901 cases recorded. X in hospital, including Y in ICU”
Everyone under 69??? Criteria please?
Means tested..it is or it isn’t., maybe or not, could be ,but maybe not,yes but you don’t… reapply..
Nice.
I think all minimum wage earners should be entitled to a full medical card, the €184 threshold hasn’t been increased in 20 years, this should move inline with both the minimum wage. There are millionaires in this wonderful country of ours with full medical cards and paying exorbent private health insurance premiums, the rich get richer while the rest of us have to pay for everything and wait years for appointments/surgeries if we live long enough
I was on the fence but now definitely voting FFG next time around.
Pensioners?
have your say