The number of agency workers in Ireland fell by 11.0% year over year in the first quarter, according to a report by Ireland’s Central Statistics Office.

In the first quarter, there were 50,400 agency workers compared to the first quarter of 2018 when there were 56,600 agency workers.

Overall, 2.6% of employees in Ireland were agency workers in the first quarter compared to 3.1% in the first quarter of last year.

Other findings in the report from the first quarter included:

• 52% of agency workers were female, 48% were male.
• Just over a quarter of agency workers, 26.8%, were employed in the “agriculture, forestry, fishing, industry and construction” sector.
• 43.3% of agency workers were in the 15-34 age group in the first quarter; persons aged 35-44 accounted for 25.8% of agency workers, persons aged 45-54 accounted for 19.0% of agency workers and those 55 and older represented 12.1% of agency workers.
• Six out of 10 agency workers worked less than 40 hours per week.
• 26.2% of agency workers were non-Irish nationals, up from 24.6% a year earlier.