Workers in Dublin had the highest levels of disposable income in the State in 2023 as labour productivity declined in the south amid a slowdown in manufacturing, new Central Statistics Office (CSO) research into regional incomes and output has revealed.
Disposable income – the amount of money left for an individual to spend after receiving social benefits and paying tax and social charges – was measured at €32,393 per person in Dublin in 2023, up 1.3 per cent from the previous year.
This was 14 per cent higher than the national average of €28,370.
Cork had the second highest level of disposable income per person at €29,876, followed by Limerick at €29,491.
Longford, meanwhile, recorded the lowest disposable income per person nationally in 2023 at €22,251, the CSO said.
“Disposable income in Dublin city and county remained the largest nationally in 2023, accounting for €49 billion of the State total, which was up 12.6 per cent per cent from 2022,” said Aoife Crowe, a statistician in the national accounts analysis division of the CSO.
The measure does not include the impact of housing costs, which are higher in Dublin and in other urban areas.
The midlands, including Longford, “continued to have the lowest levels of disposable income”, she said, accounting for €7.9 billion, 15.6 per cent below the national average.
The CSO also analysed the productivity of labour in different regions of the State during the year. Labour productivity, as measured by gross value added (GVA) per hour worked, is the main measure of the efficiency of the labour force and can indicate whether one region or sector is using its workers “more efficiently” than another, it said.
Labour productivity in the southern region was €117 per hour in 2023, followed by the east and midlands at €111 and the northern and western regions at €54 per hour.
This is largely due to the high concentration of manufacturing businesses in the south, particularly in the southwest of the State in Cork and Kerry.
Despite leading other regions, the CSO said growth in labour productivity had declined somewhat in the southern region in the year. This was driven by a decline in manufacturing against a backdrop of higher input and energy prices.
While Irish manufacturers fared better than their global counterparts in 2023, input costs remained elevated and sluggish demand led to a slowdown in new orders throughout the year.
In the southwest, manufacturing businesses accounted for 76.8 per cent of GVA in 2023 while the midlands, where it accounted for 41.8 per cent of GVA in the year, was also significantly reliant on the sector.
By contrast, information technology and communications businesses, which remained in expansion mode in 2023, are largely concentrated in the east of the State, making up 37.2 per cent of Dublin’s GVA in 2023, the CSO said.
Overall, employment was “heavily weighted” towards Dublin city and county in 2023, Ms Crowe said. Some 35 per cent of all employed people in the State were based there in 2023, followed by Cork city and county with 12 per cent.
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