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08 May 2020
Go to release: Live Register April 2020
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (8 May 2020) issued results from the Live Register in respect of April 2020. Today’s release also includes details regarding the COVID-19 payment schemes.
Edel Flannery, Senior Statistician, CSO, explains the approach taken today with regard to the publication of today’s Live Register and COVID-19 payments:
“The majority of those whose income from employment has been affected due to COVID-19 are currently being facilitated through the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (602,107) which is administered by the DEASP, while a smaller cohort are currently being facilitated through the Revenue Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme (425,204).
These emergency payments are not captured in the traditional methodology of the Live Register which is a historical series that captures the number of claimants for Jobseekers Benefit (JB)/Jobseekers Assistance (JA).
Furthermore, COVID-19 payments are currently viewed as short-term in nature, with an expectation that after 12 weeks, those in receipt of such payments may return to work or may be considered for JB/JA.
As it would not be statistically beneficial or valid to break the current Live Register series to try and capture these temporary measures, it has been decided to compile the Live Register data for April 2020 in the traditional way and provide separate details of COVID-19 payments.
This approach preserves the continuity of the traditional Live Register series from what is a short-term emergency intervention while at the same time providing transparency around the impact of COVID-19. (see Information Note on Implications of COVID-19 on the Live Register and the Monthly Unemployment Estimates for more details).”
Commenting on today’s publication, Edel Flannery continued:
“The unadjusted Live Register total for April 2020 is 214,741. When seasonal effects are taken into account, the seasonally adjusted Live Register total for April 2020 was 216,900 which was an increase of 7,500 from March 2020.
Outside of the traditional Live Register, in the last week of April 2020, 602,107 people were in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and 425,204 persons were benefitting from the Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme.”
Commenting further on new aggregates of the COVID-19 income supports being made available by the CSO today, Edel Flannery continued:
“The Central Statistics Office (CSO) have worked with both the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP) and the Revenue Commissioners to meet user needs for availability of more detailed aggregates for the COVID-19 income supports.
Tables providing the breakdowns of the numbers receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment each week by sex, age group, county and nationality grouping are being made available today at the following link: Detailed COVID-19 Income Support Tables. This link will be updated with corresponding tables for those in receipt of the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme as soon as the data is finalised.
Note to Editors
Enquiries:
Catalina Gonzalez, Labour Market Analysis - 087-646 7535
Email: labour@cso.ie
For further details:
List of CSO Statistical Releases Affected by COVID-19
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