The seasonally adjusted Live Register total for February 2023 was 182,500 persons, down by 1,700 or 0.9% from January 2023.
The unadjusted Live Register total stood at 183,401 people for February 2023.
Of the 183,401 people on the unadjusted Live Register in February 2023, 53.5% were male and 69.6% were Irish.
The 35-44 age group made up the largest number of those on the Live Register in February 2023 at 43,473 persons or 23.7%.
All counties saw an increase in the number of persons on the Live Register in the 12 months to February 2023.
The counties that saw the largest percentage increase in the number of people on the Live Register in the 12 months to February 2023 were Kerry (43.1%), Leitrim (37.6%) and Clare (37.6%). The counties with the lowest increase were Kildare (0.8%) and Tipperary (1.9%).
The number of persons on the Live Register for one year or more in February 2023 was 60,700, down 10,461 from a year earlier. There were 122,701 persons (66.9%) on the Live Register for less than one year.
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 | |
| February 2022 | 163,248 | 162,300 |
| January 2023 | 184,736 | 184,200 |
| February 2023 | 183,401 | 182,500 |
| Change in month | - | -1,700 |
| Change in year | 20,153 | - |
https://data.cso.ie/table/LRM15
The number of Jobseeker's Allowance claims increased by 18.2% (19,976) in February 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.
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 122,701 persons (66.9%) with a claim duration of less than one year (short-term) and 60,700 persons (33.1%) 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 66.4% and the proportion of long-term recipients increase to 33.6%. 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 under two-thirds of those on the Live Register in February 2023: 25–34-year-olds made up 22.5% of the total, 35–44-year-olds 23.7% and 45–54 year-olds 20.4%.
Data up to the end of January 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.
Just under two-thirds of those benefitting from TPD in February 2023 were female (15,257). Nearly 90% of all recipients (20,790) 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 (03 March 2023) issued results from the Live Register in respect of February 2023.
Commenting on today’s publication, Morgan O’Donnell, Statistician in the Labour Market Analysis Section, said:
“The unadjusted Live Register total for February 2023 was 183,401. When seasonal effects are considered, the seasonally adjusted Live Register total for February 2023 was 182,500, a decrease of 1,700 persons from January 2023. There was an increase of 500 people on the seasonally adjusted Live Register for February 2023 when compared with February 2020.
There were 23,176 people benefitting from the EU's Temporary Protection Directive included in the Live Register figures for February 2023, an increase of 299 from January 2023.”