There were over 6,000 fewer people working in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector in quarter four (Q4) 2022 than there had been a year earlier, according to latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CS0).
The latest labour force survey published by the CSO today (Thursday, February 23) shows that the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector recorded the largest decrease, 5.7%, of people in employment in the year to Q4 2022.
Most economic sectors had greater numbers in employment in Q4 2022 compared to pre-pandemic levels in Q4 2019.
But the agri-fishing sector was completely out of sync with the national trend which saw the overall number of people with a job in Ireland hit a record high last year.
While employment in the agri-fishing sector declined, the number of people with a job in the administrative and support service activities sector saw the biggest increase of 15.2 %, equivalent to 14,500, in the year to Q4 2022.
Sam Scriven, statistician with the CSO, said: “The number of persons aged 15-89 years in employment increased by 68,600 or 2.7% to 2,574,500 persons in the year to Q4 2022.
“This is the highest number of persons employed in the state since the series began in 1998.”
According to Scriven the unemployment rate fell to 4.2% in Q4 2022 which meant that 112,000, people aged 15-74 years were out of work compared to 2,574,500 persons who were in employment in the quarter.
The CSO labour force survey also examined the total number of hours worked by different sectors.
It found that in Q4, 2022, people in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector worked per week an average of 4.2 million hours.
This compared to the construction sector, where the number of hours worked per week in Q4 2022 increased to 5.9 million hours.
The CSO also found that people who worked in the the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector had the lowest rate of absence from work of 3.3% in Q4 2022 compared to any other sector.