Unemployment rate rises to 5%, figures show

The monthly unemployment rate rose to 5%, which is an increase of 0.4% since June 2025, and up 0.1% from May 2026, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

When the results are broken down by sex, the unemployment rate for males was 4.6% in June 2026, up 0.1% from May, and down by 0.2% from June 2025.

For females, the monthly unemployment rate in June 2026 was 5.4%, which is an increase of 0.1% in May and up from 4.4% in June 2025.

When it came to age, those aged 15-24 saw an unemployment rate of 10.8%, which was up from 9.9% in May 2026.

Unchanged from May 2026, the unemployment rate for people aged 25-74 was 4.2%.

Conor Delves, Statistician in the Labour Market Analysis Section of the CSO, said: “The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for all people aged 15-74 years in June 2026 was 5.0%, up from 4.9% in May 2026, and up from 4.6% in June 2025. In June 2026, the unemployment rate for males was 4.6%, and for females was 5.4%.

The seasonally adjusted number of people unemployed was 145,100 in June 2026, compared with 142,000 in May 2026. There was a rise of 8,900 in the seasonally adjusted number of people unemployed in June 2026 when compared with June 2025.

The seasonally adjusted number of unemployed males increased to 71,200 in June 2026, compared with 69,000 in May 2026. The seasonally adjusted number of unemployed females in June 2026 was 73,800, up from 72,900 in May 2026.”