27/11/2014: QNHS Q3 2014: Employed, Unemployed & Retired

Key summary of the previous posts is:

1. Unemployment is falling across all durations and all demographic (age-defined) cohorts, but the pressure of long-term unemployment is rising in the cohort of older workers (40 years of age and older), and
2. Irish economy added 27,600 jobs in a year though Q3 2014 compared to Q3 2013. but only 17,300 of these jobs were private sector non-agricultural jobs. On longer-term trend: Non-agricultural Private Sector employment in Q3 2014 was 13.83 lower than 2008 average and Agricultural employment was 4.9% lower. In contrast, Public and State-controlled Sectors employment in Q3 2014 was 3.56% higher than 2008 average. 
3. Ireland's participation rate remains below historical average and despite a slight improvement in Q3 2014 compared to Q2 2014, labour force participation rate remains lower than for the same period in 2013. 

In this post, lets take a look at the QNHS breakdown by principal status.

Total population over 15 years of age stood at 3,595,600 in Q3 2014, which marks an increase of 0.08% y/y - a significant drop from 0.21% rise in Q2 2014. Compared to Q1 2014, total population over 15 years of age is down 0.1% (-3,500). In level terms, total population of age over 15 has increased 2,800 in Q3 2014 compared to Q3 2013 while in Q2 2014 y/y increase was 7,600.

Population at work stood at 1,859,500, close to Q4 2009 levels of 1,859,200 and up 1.7% y/y (+31,000). However, this marks a slowdown in the rate of growth in numbers at work from 2.17% y/y growth in Q2 2014 (+39,100). Since Q1 2011 some 58,500 more people are at work, although this reflects seasonal variations.

Unemployed numbers fell to 294,800 in Q3 2014, down 9.76% y/y which is a faster rate of decline than in Q2 2014 when numbers unemployed declined 9.67%. In level terms, the rate of decline y/y in Q2 and Q3 2014 remained identical at 31,900.

Student numbers rose 0.5% to 401,000 in Q3 2014 compared to the same period of 2013. This compares to a 0.89% decline y/y in Q2 2014. Currently, number of students is running at 0.5% below Q1 2011 levels.

Numbers engaged on home duties dropped to 470,300 - a decline of 1.63% y/y in Q3 2014, having previously dropped 1.77% in Q2 2014. Overall, there has been a dramatic drop in numbers of those engaged on home duties compared to Q1 2011 - down 11.3% or 59,900.

Numbers of those retired from employment rose once again to 416,700 in Q3 2014 - a rate of y/y increase of 2.76% (+11,200) y/y. This marks acceleration in the y/y increases compared to Q2 2014 when numbers retired grew at an annual rate of 1.61%. Since Q1 2011, numbers retired are up dramatically - rising by 68,400 or +19.64%.

Overall, numbers of unemployed, retired and other (including in state training programmes) stood at 864,800 in Q3 2014 - a decline of 2.58% y/y, but down only 100 (-0.01%) on Q1 2011.


As the result of the above changes, Ireland's dependency ratio improved slightly in Q3 2014, as shown in the chart below:

Overall, Q3 2014 dependency ratio was 40.34 individuals at work to 59.66 individuals not working for various reasons. This represents a slight improvement on H1 2014 ratio of 39.97 : 60.03. Nonetheless, dependency ratio remains higher than historical average of 42.58:57.42.