The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has revealed that the hospitality industry saw the most significant drop in employment in June. According to CSO’s monthly payroll employee estimation, which uses real-time data from Revenue to identify labour market trends, there was a 0.1 percent overall decrease in employment that month.
In the context of a year, however, the seasonally adjusted employee index increased by 2.1 percent compared to June of the previous year. The biggest monthly decline was seen in the food and accommodation service sector with a 1 percent drop due to growing concerns about restaurant closures throughout the country. This included unexpected closures of two Dublin restaurants by renowned chef Dylan McGrath.
From September 2023 to July 2024, the Restaurants Association of Ireland, led by CEO Adrian Cummins, recorded a total of 577 closures, averaging two per day. Moreover, the education sector saw a 0.9 percent decrease in employment during June.
On the other hand, administrative and support service activities sector experienced the largest monthly increase in employees with 1.1 percent, followed by professional, scientific, and technical activities with 0.9 percent. Over the year to June, the sector that had the highest employee increment was human health and social work activities, with a 5.8 percent rise.
Apart from the 15 to 19 years age group, which saw a 2.5 percent fall, all other age groups recorded annual increases in the employee index. The age group of 65 and over had the most significant annual growth of employees with 12.5 percent, followed by the 60 to 64 age group at 5.9 percent. Contrarily, the 15 to 19 years and the 20 to 24 years age groups witnessed the largest monthly decrease at 1.1 percent and 2.1 percent respectively.
Yearly, the female index grew by 2.5 percent, slightly more than the male index which increased by 1.9 percent. However, both saw a modest monthly drop of 0.1 percent.