More than a quarter of the Republic's entire workforce was out of work last month, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.
The total number of people either on the live register or on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) stood at 617,441 in March. This compared to 654,545 in February, which equated to a reduction of 37,104 people.
The unadjusted live register total for March was 183,096 people. This consisted of 103,283 men (56.4 per cent) and 79,813 women (43.6 per cent).
Of those on the live register for March, 20,302, or 11.1 per cent, were under 25 years of age, while 162,794 were 25 years of age and over.
A total of 443,247 people were in receipt of the PUP for the last week of March. This consisted of 242,105 men (54.6 per cent) and 201,142 women (45.4 per cent).
Of those claiming the PUP, 106,865, or 24.1 per cent, were under 25 years of age, while 336,382 were 25 years of age and over.
The Department of Social Protection (DSP) supplied supplementary information on whether PUP recipients were in full-time education when asked to certify their status.
While the CSO pointed out that this information is not complete, it is estimated that at least 8.1 per cent of all recipients of PUP since March were attending full-time education at the time of certification.
For those aged 25 years and over this could have been as low as 1.3 per cent while it was at least 33.3 per cent for those aged under 25 years.
CSO statistician Catalina Gonzalez said the current set of figures represent the first time the organisation has been able to analyse a full year of the number of people in receipt of the PUP.
“There are currently 49,274 more persons in receipt of the PUP than at the end of March 2020,” she said. “Users should consider the impact of Government restrictions when comparing the numbers of people in receipt of PUP at different points in time.
Scheme
“As Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) data has not been disseminated by the CSO yet, the total number of persons that were on the live register or who benefitted from the Covid-19 income supports (PUP or EWSS) in March 2021 is not available at this time.”
Commenting further on aggregates of the Covid-19 income supports, Ms Gonzalez said it should be noted that the DSP has been paying arrears to recipients of the PUP, to take account of the movement of people in and out of employment.
“The main arrears payment occurred on December 1st,” she said. “All arrears paid to date are now included in the week of the entitlement period, rather than the week of payment.
“Looking at this data, of the 443,247 persons in receipt of the PUP for the week ending March 28th, 2021, 54.6 per cent are male, 70.9 per cent are Irish, and almost a quarter are in each of the 25-34-year-old (22.1 per cent) and 35-44-year-old (22.7 per cent) age groups.
“It can also be noted that 857,145 people have received at least one payment since the scheme was established in March 2020, of which 56.1 per cent are male and 47.6 per cent are aged between 25 and 44 years of age.
“From the weekly breakdown of those receiving the PUP, it can also be seen that the number of those receiving the payment has decreased in each of the last seven weeks, after seven weeks of an increase.”
