There were 301,441 people working between July and September, according to the Labour Force Survey.

This was 5.9% more than in the previous year, the National Statistics Office said.

It said the number of unemployed stood at 7,723 (1.7%) while inactive persons totalled 156,987 (33.7%).

The activity rate for the quarter under review was estimated at 82.7% with the highest rate recorded among persons aged 25 to 54 (91.4%).

The employed population

On average, out of every 100 people aged between 15 and 64 years, 81 were employed.

The male employment rate for this age bracket was 87.1% while that for females stood at 73.2%.

The largest share of employed was recorded among those aged between 25 and 34 years, for both men and women.

The self-employed accounted for 14.7% of all people with a main job.

The majority of employed - 263,584 - worked on a full-time basis.  Another 37,857 had a part-time job as their primary employment.

On average, full-timers usually worked 41.2 hours while part-timers worked 23.4 hours per week.

Those employed worked 31.8 hours per week, 0.6 hours less when compared to the same period in 2022.

The average monthly basic salary of employees during the period was €1,829. The highest basic salary was recorded in the financial and insurance activities sector.

Average monthly salaries varied from €1,193 among people employed in elementary occupations to €3,008 among managers.

The unemployed and inactive population

The unemployment rate for period stood at 2.5%.

The largest share of unemployed persons was recorded among persons aged 25 to 74 years.

Women accounted for 59.2% of the total inactive people while those over 65 years made up the highest share of the inactive.

The main reason for inactivity related to people reaching retirement age or taking up early retirement (43.8).

Education attainment

More than 40% of people aged 15 years and over had a low level of education (41.4%). In contrast, 34.8% of the employed had a tertiary level of education.