New figures released by the Central Statistics Office show that growth across the Irish labour market continued to slow during the first quarter of 2026, with annual labour force growth recording its lowest increase in five years.
According to the latest Labour Force Survey for Q1 2026, Ireland’s employment rate stood at 73.3%, representing a decrease of 1.4 percentage points compared to the same period last year.
The unemployment rate rose to 4.9%, up 0.6 percentage points year-on-year, while the labour force participation rate fell to 65.0%, down 0.8 percentage points annually.
The figures suggest a cooling labour market following several years of exceptionally strong post-pandemic employment growth.
Annual labour force growth has slowed considerably since the sharp rebound seen in 2022. The CSO data shows:
- Q1 2021: -2.1%
- Q1 2022: +10.5%
- Q1 2023: +2.8%
- Q1 2024: +2.0%
- Q1 2025: +3.5%
- Q1 2026: +0.6%
The latest increase of 0.6% represents the weakest annual labour force growth recorded since the pandemic recovery period began.
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