Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is the official source of employment estimates in the State. The most recent figures available are for Q4 2021.

The Labour Force Survey is one of a group of household surveys collected by the CSO’s field force of 100 nationwide interviewers, who contact about 2,000 households per week at an annual cost of approximately €5 million. These interviewers also collect data for the annual Survey of Income and Living Conditions, the General Household Survey and regular surveys on health, transport and a variety of other topics.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) has been collected quarterly, under EU Regulation, since 1998 and provides a break-free series for employment, unemployment and labour market participation going back to Q1 2012 at NUTS3 regional level. The survey has been designed to provide accurate estimates for the NUTS3 regions. It is not possible to produce robust county level estimates from the survey.

The design of statistical surveys like the LFS does not involve economies of scale and the cost of a survey designed to provide county-level estimates would be a multiple of the present annual survey cost of €5 million. Achieving representative samples at county level on which to base labour market estimates would require an increase in the number of households interviewed and the number of field interviewers required to interview them.

The five-yearly Census of Population provides detailed geographical breakdowns of the population and some labour market characteristics at small area level, including counties. The CSO is also developing estimates based on administrative data, including the Revenue PAYE Modernisation (PMOD) system, to provide more detailed future estimates without increasing survey costs or burden on respondents .