Employment rate in Kilkenny region drops across 2025

Employment was slightly down in the South-East last year but increased in Kilkenny between 2022-2024

Published 13th Mar 2026, 12:00 BST Employment was slightly down in the South-East last year but increased in Kilkenny between 2022-2024 Sign up to our Kilkenny Live newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know you can manage your profile, and explore all of the available newsletters from Kilkenny Live within your account.

The rate of people employed in Kilkenny and the wider South-East region dipped by around one percent last year according to the most figures released by the Labour Force Survey (LFS).

The figures cover Kilkenny, Carlow, Wexford and Waterford where employment in 15-64 year olds dropped from 72.8% in Q4 of 2024 to 71.9% in Q4 2025.

This was over 2.5% lower than the national average of 74.5% in Q4 2025, a figure which grew 0.2% in the previous year from Q4 of 2024.

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County by county data isn’t provided by the LFS but Revenue’s Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources (EAADS) can give a window into Kilkenny specific employment statistics.

In 2024, there were 46,745 employments in the county, an increase of well over 2,000 from 43,843 in 2022. These figures only include employees and not people who are self-employed.

County Dublin had the highest number of employments nationwide in 2024 with 722,606 while Leitrim had the lowest at 14,977.

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