Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

157. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his plans to address the increase in the unemployment rate to 5.3% in the third quarter of 2025, the highest rate recorded since the third quarter of 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [66465/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I took note of the CSO Labour Force Survey (LFS) release last week for quarter three of 2025. There are a number of critical points to mention. I would again stress the record number of people at work in our economy which the LFS confirmed, with total employment at 2.8 million. Furthermore, our economy is continuing to add and create job opportunities. Total numbers at work were up 30,700 persons in the year to Q3 2025.

While the pace of job creation has slowed in recent months, I would point to the remarkable performance in the year to date, rather than focusing too much on any one specific quarter. So far this year, our economy has created more than one thousand jobs per week. This is a remarkable performance given the openness and size of the Irish economy.

The unemployment rate increased in Q3 to 5.3% relative to 4.5% a year ago. It is important to note also that the Department of Finance and the Central Bank of Ireland also have unemployment remaining below 5% on average for the year and also in 2026 and 2027, although their forecasts were released prior to the most recent LFS.

It is also important to put Ireland’s labour market performance in context. We can see from Eurostat how well Ireland has been performing with our rate of unemployment significantly below European Peers. The unemployment rate averaged 6.4% in the Euro Area through the first half of 2025, whereas in Ireland it was 4.5%.

We are continuing to monitor the unemployment rate, and it is no surprise to see that activity levels within the economy have softened, given the international economic backdrop and domestic capacity constraints. We are addressing the latter through very ambitious investment plans and the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity, that I published earlier this year. The Government remains fully committed to improving our competitive position to add more jobs in the future and the Action Plan has a range of measures to address and build a more resilient economy. Another important document will be the successor to Pathways to Work 2021-2025. The Department of Social Protection recently concluded a public consultation on this as we look to develop a new strategy for the years ahead. The Programme for Government was clear in our ambitions here, that is to create 300,000 extra jobs by 2030.