Tech job losses mounted at end of last year, says CSO

Both figures are non-seasonally adjusted.

Overall, there were just under 2.5 million people employed across the economy in December 2023, according to the CSO’s latest payroll estimates. The figures are based on real-time payslip data provided to Revenue, and differ from the quarterly labour force survey.

The drop in employment in the information and communications sector was the largest across all sectors, year on year, the CSO data shows.

The news comes a day after TikTok announced a raft of global job cuts, with hundreds expected to go in Ireland, where the Chinese-owned social media firm employs about 3,000 people. Internationally, the tech sector has endured a series of lay-offs since the end of Covid, after it expanded hugely during the pandemic. Stripe, X, Meta, and Microsoft are among the giant tech companies that have shed positions in Ireland.

There was an increase in public sector, health, transport and construction jobs. The number of construction workers on the payroll at Irish companies was 139,300 in December last year, in seasonally adjusted terms.

The number of jobs in the administrative and support services sector — which includes rental and leasing firms, travel agents, general office staff and recruitment agencies — also shrank year on year, by 1.6pc, in seasonally adjusted terms.

In the month to December, there was also a small drop in the number of jobs in the retail and wholesale sectors, arts and entertainment, and ‘other service activities’, a small sector that includes cleaners for individual homeowners.

However, overall job numbers in the economy were up in December. The seasonally adjusted employee index grew by 1.8pc in the year to December last year and was up by 0.1pc in the month.

Public-sector jobs rose by most in the month, albeit an increase of just 0.3pc. The number of transport and storage jobs was up 5.8pc in the year, while public sector jobs increased by 4pc across 2023.

In the health and social work sector – the second-largest in terms of employment, after retail and wholesale – the number of jobs rose 3.7pc compared with December 2022.

The finance and construction sectors also saw increases of more than 3pc year on year, just ahead of the professional, scientific and technical sectors, which were up 2.4pc.