229,657 PEOPLE WERE listed on the Live Register and the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, an increase of 5.8% in December, according to the latest figures from Central Statistics Office.

A total of 66,906 people were in receipt of the PUP in the last week of December, an increase of 11,906 on the numbers in November.

However there were 308,357 fewer people in receipt of the PUP last month compared to December 2020, a fall of 82%.

The PUP was closed to new applicants in July before being reopened for individuals, including the self-employed, who lost their employment on or after the 7 December following the reintroduction of some Covid restrictions.

Today’s CSO figures show that the Live Register, when adjusted for seasonal factors, fell by 2,600 over the month to 166,300.

During the final week of 2021, 39,454 men were in receipt of the PUP, which equates to 2.8% of the male workforce while 27,451 availed of the payment- 2.2% of the female workforce.

4,600 new claims were processed in the same week.

A total of 873,993 people received the PUP since it was introduced in March 2020, which is exactly one third of the country’s work force.

There were an estimated 283,525 jobs supported by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) in November but no figures have been released yet for the numbers on the EWSS in December.

39,214 people have been on the PUP for over a year, the CSO added.

CSO statistician, Morgan O’Donnell, commented on today’s publication, stating that there is a delay in the CSO’s ability to record EWSS data.

“While the PUP and the Live Register are weekly schemes, the availability of the EWSS data depends on an employee’s pay frequency which could be weekly, fortnightly, every four weeks or monthly,” he said.

The combined number of people on either the Live Register, the PUP or being supported by the EWSS was 491,912 in November. This compares to 793,550 in November 2020.