The seasonally adjusted Live Register total for August 2023 was 175,900 people, down by 7,000 or 3.8% from July 2023.
The unadjusted Live Register total stood at 186,396 people for August 2023.
Of the 186,396 people on the unadjusted Live Register in August 2023, 52.4% were male and 69.9% were Irish.
The 35-44 age group made up the largest number of those on the Live Register in August 2023 at 43,429 people or 23.3%.
Four counties showed an increase in the number of people on the Live Register, Leitrim (5.7%), Kerry (2.6%), Mayo (1.5%) and Donegal (0.8%).
People arriving in Ireland from Ukraine under the EU's Temporary Protection Directive (TPD) can access a wide range of Department of Social Protection (DSP) supports. The majority of new applications for income support from people of working age are being processed as Jobseeker's Allowance (JA) claims until the most appropriate income support for that person is identified. This facilitates access to existing part-time work supports where appropriate. If a person is on JA for 20* claim paid days or more, they are counted on the Live Register.
*Before October 2022, persons availing of TPD were included in the Live Register when they had been in receipt of JA for 50 days or more.
Data in this release are subject to revision based on updates to the seasonally adjusted series whenever new monthly data are added, such revisions are typically very minor in scale. It should be noted that larger revisions can occur when the comprehensive annual review of the seasonal adjustment model is carried out in January of each year. See background notes for further details.
| Total Persons on the Live Register - Unadjusted and Seasonally Adjusted | ||
| Live Register Total | Seasonally Adjusted | |
| August 2022 | 197,125 | 186,100 |
| July 2023 | 195,095 | 182,900 |
| August 2023 | 186,396 | 175,900 |
| Change in month | - | -7,000 |
| Change in year | -10,729 | - |
https://data.cso.ie/table/LRM15
The number of Jobseekers Benefit claims decreased by 15,507 (26.7%) in August 2023 compared with 12 months earlier.
The Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) scheme ended in March 2022; final payments issued were in respect of the week ending Friday 25 March 2022. All PUP recipients at that stage either transferred to a Jobseeker’s scheme or had their PUP claim closed, either because they did not apply for a jobseeker’s payment or they did not have an entitlement e.g. they were in receipt of another scheme payment or were pending a decision on their jobseeker claim.
Data up to the end of July 2023 on the number of persons availing of a range of programmes targeted primarily at the long-term unemployed (over 12 months) and other welfare recipients is provided in the Annex Table A1 – Number of persons availing of Activation Programmes table.
Persons on activation programmes are not counted as part of the monthly Live Register.
Detailed tables relating to the monthly estimates of the number of persons on Live Register classified by NUTS2 and NUTS3 regions are included in the CSO Main Data Dissemination Service LRM17 on PxStat.
Table LRM13 on PxStat includes the Live Register occupational data which is sourced from information collected by the DSP on the most recent occupation of claimants when they sign on the Live Register.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (08 September 2023) issued results from the Live Register for August 2023.
Commenting on today’s publication, Conor Delves, Statistician in the Labour Market Analysis Section, said:
“The unadjusted Live Register total for August 2023 was 186,396. When seasonal effects are considered, the seasonally adjusted Live Register total for August 2023 was 175,900, or 7,000 fewer people than July 2023.
There were 23,392 people benefitting from the EU's Temporary Protection Directive included in the Live Register figures for August 2023, an increase of 115 people from July 2023.
Four counties showed an increase in the number of people on the Live Register, Leitrim (5.7%), Kerry (2.6%), Mayo (1.5%) and Donegal (0.8%). See LRM15.
The number of people on the Live Register for one year or more in August 2023 was 66,147, which was 2,123 fewer people (-3.1%) than a year earlier. There were 120,249 people on the Live Register for less than one year, which represents just under two-thirds of the total number on the Live Register.”