Carlow's employment surges according to new data released from Census 2022

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has released Census 2022 Profile on Employment, Occupations and Commuting in all counties, including Carlow. The census took place on Sunday, 3rd April 2022.

Out of the almost 49,600 people living in County Carlow who were aged fifteen and over in April 2022, more than 26,700 people were at work. This was an increase of 22% (from almost 22,000 people recorded as working in Census 2016). This was the joint second highest rate of increase in the country.

Nationally there were 2.3 million people at work in April 2022, which was up by 16%.

Almost 2,800 people were unemployed in the county in April 2022. This was considerably lower than the 2016 figure of more than 4,500 people (a decrease of 38%). The unemployment rate was 9% compared with 17% in 2016.

Nationally there were almost 211,000 people unemployed compared with over 297,000 in Census 2016. The unemployment rate was 8% in 2022 compared with 13% in 2016. 

There were more than 7,500 retired people in Carlow, up 25% since Census 2016. There was an 18% increase in the number of people who were unable to work due to permanent sickness or disability to 2,900 people. The number of people looking after their home/family fell by 7% to just over 3,800.

The labour force participation rate was 60% in Carlow compared with 61% nationally. Among females the rate was 53% while for males it was 67%. Nationally the trend was similar at 56% for female labour force participation and 67% for males.

Most people in work in Carlow were in full-time employment, with nearly 20,000 people in this category, compared with over 4,000 who were working part-time.

The Wholesale and Retail Trade sector accounted for the largest number of workers in the county at almost 3,600. Manufacturing was the next largest, with just over 3,500 workers followed by Human Health and Social Work Activities with more than 2,600 workers.

A new question was included in Census 2022 asking people whether they ever worked from home and if so, for how many days per week. There were almost 26,800 people at work in Carlow in April 2022. Of these, over 17,000 never worked from home, while more than 6,300 people worked from home at least some of the time. Of those working from home, almost 1,500 people did so for five days per week, with 1,115 doing so for one day and 1,017 for two days each week. 

There were 23,650 people travelling to work in the county in April 2022. The majority of these drove to work, with 15,220 people driving to work by car in 2022. There were 256 people travelling by bus, which was slightly more than those by train (236). Looking at active travel, 1,842 people walked to work, up from 1,638 in 2016, while 335 people cycled, an increase of 100 people since 2016.  

Commuters in the county were travelling for longer in April 2022, with an average journey time of 29.7 minutes compared with 28.5 minutes in 2016. Nationally, the average journey time increased from 28.2 minutes to 29.1 minutes between 2016 and 2022. There were 6,364 Carlow commuters who had a journey time of less than 15 minutes, while 5,979 people had a journey time of 15 to 30 minutes. A further 3,431 people had a journey time of 60 minutes and over.