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HALF OF PEOPLE aged under 24 in Ireland are unemployed, new figures suggest.
Figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that the country’s unemployment rate, including those in receipt of Covid-19 payments, was 26.1% in May.
The CSO released two different unemployment figures for the month stating that the Covid-19 crisis has had a significant impact on the labour market throughout May.
The new Covid-19 adjusted measure of unemployment shows the 26.1% rate if all claimants of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) were classified as unemployed.
The standard monthly unemployment rate jumped to 5.6% from 5.4% in April, it said.
CSO senior statistician Edel Flannery said those in receipt of the Covid-19 PUP at the end of May do not meet the internationally agreed criteria to be considered as unemployed.
Central Statistics Office Ireland / TwitterCOVID-19 crisis continues to impact labour market in May 2020https://t.co/OSBVYFB8x0 #CSOIreland #Ireland #LabourForce #Households #Families #IrishFamilies #IrishHouseholds #Jobs #Employment #Unemployment pic.twitter.com/VhCU6YxeQ6
— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) June 3, 2020
“Therefore, the CSO is producing a supplementary measure of unemployment in parallel with the routine Monthly Unemployment Estimates,” she added.
This Covid-19 adjusted monthly unemployment measure includes those in receipt of the PUP in the calculation of the adjusted unemployment rate. It should be considered as the upper bound for the true rate of unemployment and the standard monthly rate as the lower bound.
“The Covid-19 crisis has continued to have a significant impact on the labour market in Ireland in May 2020.
“While the standard measure of monthly unemployment was 5.6% in May 2020, a new Covid-19 adjusted measure of unemployment indicates a rate as high as 26.1% if all claimants of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment were classified as unemployed.
In May, the monthly unemployment rates for men and women were 5.5% and 5.7% respectively.
Breaking the results down by broad age group, the monthly unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 24 years was 13.5% while it was 4.5% for those aged 25 to 74 years.
The CSO also published an alternative Covid-19 adjusted unemployment measure estimating the share of the labour force that was not working due to unemployment or who were out of work due to Covid-19 and receiving the PUP.
If all claimants of the PUP were classified as unemployed, this Covid-19 adjusted measure of unemployment indicates a rate of 26.6% for men and 25.5% for women.
Breaking the results down by broad age group, the new Covid-19 adjusted measure of unemployment indicates a rate of 51% for those aged 15 to 24 years and 22.5% for those aged 25 to 74 years.
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This is what the lockdown is doing to young people, they are been sacrificed in all this and very little is said about it, its like their futures don’t matter. Thrown to the wolves again with little or no thanks for the lockdown fanatics.
@Peter Hughes: So who do you sacrifice instead?
The elderly, the workforce, the medical workers.
We are all suffering in one way or the other and no doubt you’ll find that the average kid is a lot more resilliant than you may think.
Burying granny or granddad would be far more traumatic I’d imagine.
The kids will bounce back better than the rest of us.
@Mill Lane: the lockdown was needed initially. But it has gone on for far too long. The government and HSE have had ample time to set up adequate testing and contact tracing, and isolate the ill, not the whole country. With the money spent on wage subsidies, we could have all been tested 10 times over. The young people can’t ‘bounce back’ from an economic depression. None of us can, or will
@Mill Lane: I’ll bet the people who are content to throw the youth under the bus at the first sign of trouble over and over again are the same ones who were mystified by SF getting the most votes at the last election.
If you continue to treat the youth like 2nd class citizens in your society then they’ll want no part of it.
@Peter Hughes: The youth of Irelands futures haven’t mattered since the 2008 economic resession, with no hope of work for years and then later with no hope of affording a house with a wage that’s taxed to the hilt. This feels like another sign of no hope, but its a temporary one instead of austerity so its bearable. The youth are numb to all this by now.
@Peter Hughes: There are many of them that were on par time work , shorter hours, many students on part time jobs, they are All on E 350 a week now, way more than before, and listed as unemployed now. There is no incentive for them to get out of bed now.
My daughter has applied for summer jobs and has received all no’s. She just finished 1st year of college and has some retail experience. Going to be a long summer if she can’t get some kind of work!
@Seeking Truth: I’m sure college graduates are in the same boat
@Seeking Truth: well is it not better for those jobs to go to someone who lost their job and has rent/ a mortgage to pay rather than someone just looking for work for summer?
Layabouts… No wonder they will never own a house
@Jack Johnson: What did you do for attention before the lock-down and when will you be able to get back to that again?
@Jack Johnson: if you’re gonna troll at least be clever about it.
There are many people who are claiming €350 per week COVID allowance rather than working. The reason is that if you were working 39 hours on minimum wage, there is little incentive to go to work when you get such a social welfare payment. Many of the people employed on minimum wage are under 24 including many students who were taking home under €200 per week as part time workers in hospitality . Revenue will collect the overpayments via income tax but many students won’t be around long enough to collect it. All this would account for the high percentage of unemployed under 24s.
As soon as the hospitality industry reopens the government needs to withdraw the Covid payment to the unemployed and means test a new payment to divert the resource to those who truly deserve the assistance
Thats because most of them are more than happy to sit at home on €350 pandemic pay doing nothing.
@Paul Tarbey: my fathers place the part time workers refused to go back. Too happy with the covid payment
@Joe: I see and hear plenty of these types of cases. It’s like winning a lottery for most people. Pointless to put them into “statistics” to showcase unemployment. It’s by choice. Stay at home for €350 or go work? Tough choice!
Genuine question-
How can 15 year olds be classed as Unemployed if you have to be 18 to be in receipt of Jobseekers Allowance? Or maybe they changed the rules when I wasn’t looking?
REALLY SORRY TO HEAR THAT…BEFORE COVID 1.8 MIL FULL TIME 450 THOUSANDS PART TIME…ON THE DOLE 110 000 …PROBABLY …IN SEPTEMBER AFTER WE WILL GO THROUGH THOSE 5 PHASES…AT LEAST 220 000 on dole …i think we wil need at least 1 to 1 and half years to go back to” nothing.”
The 100 year cycle of no societal infrastructures continues. Like all generations before you, leave while you can, come back if you can afford it.
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