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Press Statement

Preasráiteas

09 April 2020

Press Statement Monthly Unemployment March 2020

Monthly Unemployment Estimates March 2020
  • The COVID-19 Crisis has had a significant impact on the labour market during March 2020
  • Seasonally adjusted Monthly Unemployment Rate for March 2020 using standard methodology:
    • 5.4% for all persons up from 4.8% in February 2020
    • 5.5% for males and 5.4% for females
    • 13.2% for persons aged under 25 years and 4.3% for persons aged 25 years and over
  • Alternative COVID-19 adjusted unemployment measure (upper bound) for March 2020:
    • 16.5% for all persons
    • 15.4% for males and 17.8% for females
    • 34.0% for persons aged 15 to 24 years and 14.1% for persons aged 25 years and over

Go to release: Monthly Unemployment March 2020

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (9 April 2020) issued Monthly Unemployment Estimates results in respect of March 2020.

Edel Flannery, Senior Statistician, CSO, explains the approach taken today regarding the publication of the Monthly Unemployment and the new COVID-19 Adjusted Unemployment Estimates:

The 283,037 persons in receipt of the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment at the end of March 2020 do not meet the internationally agreed criteria to be considered as unemployed for the purposes of the compilation of the standard Monthly Unemployment Estimates.

Therefore, the CSO has decided to produce a supplementary measure of unemployment in parallel with the routine Monthly Unemployment Estimates. 

This new COVID-19 Adjusted Monthly Unemployment measure includes those in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payments 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.”

This approach preserves the methodology of the standard Monthly Unemployment Estimates series while at the same time providing transparency around the impact of COVID-19 on the labour market (see Information Note on Implications of COVID-19 on the Live Register and the Monthly Unemployment Estimates and Monthly Unemployment COVID-19 Technical Note for more details).”

Commenting on today’s publication, Edel Flannery continued:

The COVID-19 crisis has had a significant impact on the labour market in Ireland in March 2020. While the standard measure of Monthly Unemployment was 5.4% in March 2020, a new COVID-19 adjusted measure of unemployment indicates a rate as high as 16.5% if all claimants of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment were classified as unemployed.

The Monthly Unemployment Rate for March 2020 using standard methodology is 5.4%, up from 4.8% in February 2020. In March 2020, the Monthly Unemployment Rate for males and females were 5.5% and 5.4% respectively. Breaking the results down by broad age group, the Monthly Unemployment Rate for those aged 15 to 24 years was 13.2% while it was 4.3% for those aged 25 to 74 years.

As well as the standard Monthly Unemployment Estimates for March 2020, the CSO have also published an alternative COVID-19 adjusted unemployment measure estimating the share of the labour force in March 2020 that were not working due to unemployment or who were out of work due to COVID-19 and receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.

If all claimants of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment were classified as unemployed, this new COVID-19 Adjusted Measure of Unemployment indicates a rate of 15.4% for males and 17.8% for females. Breaking the results down by broad age group, the new COVID-19 Adjusted Measure of Unemployment indicates a rate of 34.0% for those aged 15 to 24 years and 14.1% for those aged 25 to 74 years.”

Note to Editors

Enquiries:

Catalina Gonzalez, Labour Market Analysis -  (+353) 87 646 7535

Email: labour@cso.ie

For further details:

List of CSO Statistical Releases Affected by COVID-19

Information Note on Implications of COVID-19 on the Live Register and the Monthly Unemployment Estimates

Monthly Unemployment COVID-19 Technical Note

 

For further information contact:

Catalina Gonzalez (+353) 21 453 5163

or email labour@cso.ie

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