New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that early school leavers are three times more likely to be unemployed than those who completed their education.
The CSO's latest Educational Attainment Thematic Report survey figures show that 25% of early school leavers were unemployed compared to 8% of other persons aged 18-24 in the second quarter of 2019.
Early school leavers were less likely to engage in the labour market in second quarter with early school leavers three times as likely to be unemployed than another person aged 18-24 who is not an early school leaver, the CSO said today.
Its latest findings show that the number of people who attain higher education levels is linked with higher employment rates.
The CSO said that persons aged 25-64 years old with a third level qualification are more than twice as likely to be employed (86%) than those with no formal education/primary education (40%).
Those with no formal education/primary education were twice as likely to be unemployed (6%) than those with a third level qualification (3%).
The proportion of those aged 25-64 years old with a third level qualification was 47% in Q2 2019, while one in twenty (5%) reported that they had primary education/no formal education.
Increased levels of participation in third-level education overtime were also shown in the latest report with over half of 25-34 and 35-44-year-olds reported to have the highest levels of third-level attainment.
Just three in 10 of 60-64-year-olds were reported to have third-level attainment.
The report also found that non-Irish nationals have higher education levels than Irish nationals.
In the second quarter, over four in 10 Irish nationals (45%) aged 25-64 years old had a third level qualification.
In comparison, the other EU15 states (excluding Ireland and the UK) had a third-level attainment rate of 72% and other nationalities (non-EU28 nationalities) were at 69%.
