CSO CSO

THE CENTRAL STATISTICS Office has published stats on unemployment up to the third quarter of the year. 

Using the standard International Labour Organisation (ILO) criteria, people aged 15 years and over in employment fell by 1.4% or 31,700 to 2,295,200 in the year to Q3. The employment rate for those aged 15-64 years was 67.7% in Q3.

When the effects of Covid-19 are taken into account, people aged 15 years and over in employment is estimated to have been 2,078,058 at the end of September, with an employment rate of 61.0% for those aged 15-64 years. By the end of October, these are estimated to have stood at 1,965,209 and 57.5% respectively.

By the end of October 2020, the Covid-19 adjusted measure of unemployment is currently estimated to have been 501,640 – with an associated Covid-19 adjusted unemployment rate of 20.2%.

Responding to the Department of Finance figures, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said:

“Today’s figures show that Ireland’s labour market continued to bear the fall-out from Covid-19 and the associated public health restrictions in the third quarter this year. The rise in the LFS unemployment rate to 6.7% in today’s figures shows the impact of the pandemic on people’s livelihoods.

However the rise in total employment and total hours worked in the economy from the second quarter is evidence of the improvement in economic conditions in the third quarter and shows how resilient Ireland’s labour market is.

“The introduction of the Level 5 public health restrictions currently in place has had a significant and rapid impact on our labour market with numbers of claimants for the PUP rising to 350,000 in recent weeks. However, I am encouraged by the fact that, with sectors such as construction and manufacturing remaining open, the rise in the number of people relying on the PUP has stayed well below the peak of 600,000 from early May.

“If we continue our diligent efforts, as we have done to date in reducing the spread of the virus for a second time, many people will return to work once Level 5 restrictions are lifted.”