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The seasonally adjusted Live Register total for December 2022 was 185,700 persons, up by 300 people or by 0.2% from November 2022.
Unadjusted Live Register total stood at 184,642 persons for December 2022.
Of the 184,642 persons on the Live Register in December 2022, 53.5% were male and 70.5% were Irish.
The 35-44 age group made up the largest number of those on the Live Register in December 2022 at 43,908 persons or 23.8%.
All counties saw an increase in the number of persons on the Live Register in the 12 months to December 2022.
The counties that saw the greatest increase in the number of people on the Live Register in the 12 months to December 2022 were Kerry (38.1%) and Clare (33.6%). The counties with the lowest increase in numbers on the Live Register were Meath (3.6%) and Tipperary (0.9%).
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, persons availing of TPD were included in the Live Register when they had been in receipt of JA for 50 days or more.
| Total Persons on the Live Register - Unadjusted and Seasonally Adjusted | ||
| Live Register Total | Seasonally Adjusted | |
| December 2021 | 163,856 | 165,500 |
| November 2022 | 180,884 | 185,400 |
| December 2022 | 184,642 | 185,700 |
| Change in month | - | 300 |
| Change in year | 20,786 | - |
https://data.cso.ie/table/LRM15
The number of Jobseeker's Allowance claims increased by 17.9% (19,501) in December 2022 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.
Under the Economic Recovery Plan, some previous recipients of PUP transitioned to a jobseeker’s payment and are now appearing on the Live Register. The duration of Live Register claims is currently based on the length of time from the jobseeker’s (JA/JB) claim commencement date to the last week of the reference month and is presented in Table 3 of this release and in Tables LRM11 and LRM18 on PxStat. Using the current methodology there are 122,976 persons (66.6%) with a claim duration of less than one year (short-term) and 61,666 persons (33.4%) with a claim duration of one year or more (long-term). Taking the duration time on the PUP into account sees the proportion of short-term recipients drop to 64.8% and the proportion of long-term recipients increase to 35.2%. Any changes the CSO may make to the methodology for the calculation of duration in the future will be clearly outlined to users in the statistical release and accompanying material.
Persons between the ages of 25 and 54 accounted for just over two-thirds of those on the Live Register in December 2022: 25–34-year-olds made up 22.6% of the total, 35–44-year-olds (23.8%), and the 45–54-year-old grouping accounted for 20.5%.
Data up to the end of November 2022 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.
Just under two-thirds of those benefitting from TPD in December 2022 were female (14,403). Nearly 90% of all recipients (19,464) were over 25 years old.
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 (13 January 2023) issued results from the Live Register in respect of December 2022.
Commenting on today’s publication, Morgan O’Donnell, Statistician in the Labour Market Analysis Section, said:
“The unadjusted Live Register total for December 2022 was 184,642. When seasonal effects are considered, the seasonally adjusted Live Register total for December 2022 was 185,700, an increase of 300 persons from November 2022. There was an increase of 600 persons on the seasonally adjusted Live Register for December 2022 when compared with December 2019.
There were 21,783 people benefitting from the EU's Temporary Protection Directive included in the Live Register figures for December 2022, an increase of 2,283 from November 2022.”