Austin Hughes

So it gives you a good sense that it's a patchy economy at the moment and the

The fact that employment growth slowed means that there were more people looking for work.

And in that sense, the unemployment rate rose quite sharply to 5.3 against 4.5 percent.

And that's the highest number since the third quarter of 2021.

It tells you, you know, not that the economy is falling off a cliff.

It's not like that at all.

But perhaps the overheating concerns are a little bit overdone.

Now, again, when you dig into the detail, and there's loads of detail in terms of this, the largest increase in terms of absolute numbers at work was in ages 25 to 34.

But if you look at the percentage increases, the largest increase was in the over 65s.

And we saw a decline in numbers aged under 25 at work.

which also led to an increase in unemployment among younger people.

And that sort of, you know, as I say, two or three speed economy is very clear in these sort of numbers.

Younger people probably finding it hard to get a job in a country.

a labour market that's cooling, where companies are being a little bit more cautious.

And there's also a very clear educational divide.

If you look at numbers with third level qualifications are now 43% of those in employment.

They're up, but anyone with secondary school or lower qualifications, there's fewer people like that working than a year ago.

So a lot of information on the economy.

Also quite revealing, the numbers of Irish citizens working roughly flat in the last year and most of the employment gains, net employment gains seen in non-Irish citizens, predominantly those coming from outside the EU and UK.

So, you know, it gives you a huge sense of what's happening in the Irish economy.