New data published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today (Thursday, February 19) shows there has been an increase in the number of people employed in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector.

According to the CSO's Labour Force Survey, 109,300 people were employed in the sector in the final quarter (Q4) of 2025.

This marks an increase from the 107,700 people working in the sector in the same three-month period in 2024.

This growth was driven by an increase in the number of women in the sector which stood at 18,100 in Q4 2025, compared to 16,500 in Q4 2025.

The CSO noted that there was a very slight decrease in the number of men employed in the sector at 91,200, which was down 100 on Q4 2024.

CSO

The survey shows that overall the number of people aged 15-89 years in employment rose by 56,700 or 2% to 2,833,100 people in the 12 months to Q4 2025.

The employment rate for people aged 15-64 years was 74.5% in Q4 2025, up from 74.3% in Q4 2024.

The number of people aged 15-74 years who were unemployed in Q4 2025 stood at 128,200, with an associated unemployment rate of 4.4%.

Colin Hanley, statistician in the CSO labour market and earnings division, said: "An estimated 582,600 or 20.6% of those in employment worked part-time, and 121,300 or 20.8% of those in part-time employment were classified as underemployed (i.e. they would like to work more hours for more pay)."

Hanley said the largest increase in employment by economic sector was in industry (B-E), which rose by 22,000 people (+6.6%).

The largest decrease in employment was in information and communication, down by 12,700 people (-7%).

"The number of people who work from home decreased by 15,900, or 1.6% to 956,700 in Q4 2025.

"At the same time, those that never worked from home rose by 74,200, or 4.1% to 1,865,600, exceeding the pre-pandemic level for the first time," he said.