Accommodation, food jobs see dip

Employment in the accommodation and food service industry saw the greatest decline in July, as reported by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), with a 0.8% decrease. Not far behind was the information and communication sector, which reported a 0.6% reduction, as observed through the agency’s monthly employee data.

In terms of the seasonally adjusted index for employees, there was a slight decline of 0.2% in July. Interestingly, female employee numbers showed a minor upsurge of 0.1%, whilst the figures for males remained unchanged.

On the flip side, public administration and defence witnessed the most significant monthly growth, with a 0.6% increase, followed closely by the educational sector with a 0.5% rise.

When we look at age demographics, it seems that younger employees faced the brunt of the declines in July. In fact, the largest drop by age group was seen in the 15-19 years category, down by a staggering 3.9%. This was followed by the 20-24 years group, who experienced a 0.9% dip. Conversely, the 60-64 years demographic saw the largest employment boost, with a rise of 0.3%.

Year-on-year, the employee index reported an improvement of 2.4% in July, keeping in line with recent trends. It is interesting to note that this recovery only started to happen after March 2021, which had seen a sharp annual decline in the index of more than 11%.

From a gender perspective, employment indices for females and males showed annual growth rates of 2.8% and 2.1%, respectively. Almost all age groups experienced an enhancement in employment opportunities over the last year, with only the 15-19 years category seeing a 3.7% decrease.

Remarkably, the elderly age group of 65 years and over experienced the most impressive annual rise in employment of 11.4%, followed by the 60-64 years age group at 5.8%.

Lastly, human health and social work activities had the highest annual rise amongst sectors in employee numbers with a 6% increase. This was followed by a tie between services and public administration and defence, each experiencing an improvement of 5.4%. The largest sector fall was seen in the information and communication sector which had a decrease of 2.5%.

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