Nearly a quarter of the Irish workforce was still working remotely in the third quarter of this year, with Dublin the highest at 30%, figures from the Central Statistics Office show.

The agency’s Labour Force Survey employment series also showed that employment in the Irish economy rose by almost 10%, or 230,900 people, between the end of 2019 and the third quarter of 2022, reflecting a rapid recovery in the labour market as the effects of the pandemic lessen.

Those classified as “usually working from home” accounted for 22.5% of people in employment between July and September 2022, compared with just 7.3% in the third quarter of 2019.

While a huge increase, the figure is down from the third quarter of 2021, when 29.9% worked from home.

The CSO said the number of people working from home — which it defined as a person who worked at home on at least half of days worked in the four weeks prior to interview — has seen a sharp rise since pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, increasing from 169,300 in the third quarter of 2019 to 574,100 (+239%) in the third quarter of 2022.

Broken down by region of residence, Dublin had the highest proportion of people employed who usually work from home, increasing from 6.5% in 2019 to 30% in the third quarter of this year, which was down from 42.4% last year.

Border counties had the highest proportion of people “never working from home” at 79.3% in the third quarter of 2022.

Permanent employment increased by 211,600 (11.9%) to 1.99 million over the three -year period, the CSO said, while temporary employment fell by 17,200 (8.4%) to 188,200 in the same period.