The number of people employed in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector increased by around 9% in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023 when compared to the same period in the previous year.
That is according to the latest Labour Force Survey published today (Thursday, February 22) by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The figures show that 112,900 people were employed in the sector in Q4 2023 which is up by 9,300 year-on-year.
However, it is down from the 114,700 working in the sector in the previous quarter.
Agriculture, forestry and fishing was among the economic sectors that saw the largest percentage increase year-on-year in people employed.
Agriculture
The CSO data shows that 97,500 males aged between 15 and 89 years were employed in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector in Q4 2023.
This is up from 86,000 in the corresponding quarter in 2022, but is down slightly on Q3 2023 when 97,300 males were working in the sector.
15,400 females were working in agriculture, forestry and fishing in Q4 2023, which is down by over 2,000 when compared with the same period in the previous year (17,600).
The southwest was the region with the highest number of people employed in agriculture, forestry and fishing at 24,500.
This was followed by the border region (19,200), the southeast (16,900) and the west (15,000).
CSO
Overall, the CSO data shows that the number of people aged 15-89 years in employment stood at 2,706,400 in Q4 2023.
This marks an increase or 3.4% or 89,600 more people in work when compared to 12 months earlier.
The employment rate for people aged 15-64 years was 74% in Q4 2023.
There were 117,700 unemployed people aged 15-74 years in the period, giving an unemployment rate of 4.2%, up from 4.1% in Q4 2022.
The unemployment rate among those aged 15-24 years (the youth unemployment rate) was 9.4% in Q4 2023, up from 9.1% in Q4 2022.
There were 29,500 people in long-term unemployment (unemployed for 12 months or longer) in Q4 2023 . This was a decrease of 4,900 people from Q4 2022.