The NERI seminar titled 'The Irish labour market: Recent developments and future growth' will be presented by Enda Keenan, Central Bank of Ireland. It will take place on Wednesday 16 September, 2026 at 15:30 as an online Zoom event.
Seminar details:
Presenter: Enda Keenan, Central Bank of Ireland
Title: The Irish labour market: Recent developments and future growth
Time and date: 15:30 - 16:30 on Wednesday 16 September, 2026
Platform: Zoom
Lecture Format:
Enda Keenan, Central Bank of Ireland will make his presentation for between 30-45 minutes. Subsequently, there will be a Q&A section where the chairperson, Ciarán Nugent, NERI will present questions from attendees to Enda.
Abstract:
The Irish labour market has undergone significant transformation since the pandemic, driven by increased female participation and net inward migration. The pace of employment growth has moderated in recent quarters alongside a slowdown in labour demand indicators and a rise in unemployment suggesting that recent period of labour market tightness is easing. Assessing the current state of the labour market can be complicated with diverging trends across various indicators such as the Labour Force Survey and monthly payroll data. In addition to cyclical developments, near-term growth prospects will be affected by structural demographic changes as Ireland is only of few European countries in which the size of the population aged 15-24 years will increase in the coming years. This prospective labour supply increase may coincide with cooler labour demand, potentially resulting in increased seasonal volatility in unemployment rates. Overall, this presentation discusses the current state of the Irish labour market and outlines a number of key issues for future growth.
Speakers details:
Enda Keenan is an economist in the Irish Economic Analysis Division with the Central Bank of Ireland. He holds an MSc from the University of Limerick. His work primarily focuses on labour market forecasting for both domestic and Eurosystem projections. Recent research interests include wage growth dynamics, hours worked developments, labour productivity, demographic trends and AI exposure in the labour market.
Registration:
The seminar is open to all who are interested and is free to attend. However, you must register your intention to attend by contacting [email protected]