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02 July 2020
Go to release: Live Register June 2020
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (2 July 2020) issued results from the Live Register in respect of June 2020. Today’s release also includes details regarding the COVID-19 payment schemes.
Catalina Gonzalez, Statistician, CSO, explains the approach taken regarding 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 (438,933) which is administered by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP). A smaller cohort are currently being facilitated through the Revenue Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme (382,018).
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 those in receipt of such payments may return to work or may subsequently 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 June 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: https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/in/mue/inlrmue/ for more details).
Commenting on today’s publication, Catalina Gonzalez continued:
‘The unadjusted Live Register total for June 2020 is 220,871. When seasonal effects are taken into account, the seasonally adjusted Live Register total for June 2020 was 213,700 which was a decrease of 14,200 from May 2020.
Outside of the traditional Live Register, in the last week of June 2020, 438,933 people were in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment while 382,018 persons received the Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme in June 2020.
A total of 1,002,470 persons were either on the Live Register for June 2020 or received either the Pandemic Unemployment Payment or the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme in June 2020. This number is not the total of the three schemes, as there is some overlap between them due to the different frequency of the payments, and the fact that some people who are included on the Live Register but not receiving a payment, might be in receipt of either the Pandemic Unemployment Payment or the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme.’
Commenting further on aggregates of the COVID-19 income supports, Catalina Gonzalez continued:
‘The CSO has worked with both 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 and the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme 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 on a weekly basis for the duration of the schemes.
Looking at this data it can be seen that 438,933 persons were in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment for the week ending 28 June 2020. Of those, 51.3% are male, 71.1% are Irish, and almost a quarter are in each of the 25-34 year (23.2%) and 35-44 year (22.9%) age groups. It can also be noted that 695,867 people have received at least one payment since the scheme was established in March 2020, of which 56.5% are male and 47.9% are aged between 25 and 44 years of age.
For those availing of the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme, out of the 257,936 currently recorded as being on the scheme and having received a payment for the week ending 21 June 2020, 60.2% are male, 77.6% are Irish Nationals and 49.4% are aged between 25 and 44 years.’
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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