Background Notes

Source and scope of the Live Register

The Live Register is compiled from returns made for each local office to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) by the Department of Social Protection (DSP).  It comprises of persons under 65 years of age in the following classes:

• All Claimants for Jobseeker’s Benefit (JB) excluding systematic short-time workers
• Applicants for Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) excluding smallholders/farm assists and other self-employed persons
• Other registrants including applicants for credited Social Welfare contributions but excluding those directly involved in an industrial dispute.

The Live Register excludes those claimants on Jobseeker schemes who are 65 years of age and over. There was no change to this exclusion criterion with the removal of the State Pension (Transition) Scheme from 01 January 2014. Persons aged 65 years can remain on a Jobseeker scheme up to their next birthday but are not included in the Live Register.

Prior to January 2017, the DSP provided tabulated claimant counts directly to the CSO to facilitate production of the Live Register. These claimant counts were grouped by age, gender, occupation, nationality, duration, region, county and local welfare office. Data provided in this fashion is available from 1967 to December 2016.

Beginning with January 2017, the Live Register has been produced using claimant microdata from the DSP Integrated Short Term Scheme (ISTS) database. Claimants are determined to be on the Live Register if they fulfil the Live Register criteria and such persons are summarised and cross-tabulated to produce the counts published in the Live Register release.

As claimant count microdata was retrospectively available to January 2012, previously published Live Register data for this period were revised with data produced from the claimant microdata. These revisions were generally minor in nature and are included in this release as well as all relevant PxStat tables.

Source and scope of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment

The Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) is a scheme set up by the Government in response to the loss of income for those whose employment had been affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland. It is compiled from returns made to the CSO by the DSP. Payments under the scheme commenced on the week ending 22 March 2020, and will be reported as part the Live Register release while the scheme is in place. 

Source and scope of the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme

The Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) is another scheme set up by the Government in response to the loss of income for those whose employment had been affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland. It is compiled from returns made to the CSO by the Revenue Commissioners. Refunds are issued to employers registered under the scheme, who in turn pay their employees. The figures in this release reflect the number of persons receiving a payment under the scheme based on the pay date of the employee and will be reported a weekly as well as a monthly basis. Refunds under the scheme commenced on the week ending 28 March 2020, but might refer to earlier pay dates. Please see PxStat.

Source and scope of the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme

The TWSS was replaced by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) from 01 September 2020. It is currently expected to continue until 30 June 2021. It is compiled from returns made to the CSO by the Revenue Commissioners.

The EWSS is an economy-wide enterprise support that focuses primarily on business eligibility. The scheme provides a flat-rate subsidy to qualifying employers based on the numbers of eligible employees on the employer’s payroll and gross pay to employees.

The Live Register and COVID-19 Income Supports

The CSO has worked to identify the detail available from the different sources and how the different schemes should be classified for statistical purposes. There is some overlap between those who meet the criteria to be included on the Live Register and those who are benefitting from the COVID-19 income support schemes. These overlaps occur due to the different frequency of the payments, and the fact that some persons who are included on the Live Register may not be receiving a payment and so might be benefitting from either the PUP, the TWSS or the EWSS.

As users will be aware, the Live Register is a series which is available back to 1967 on the CSO’s PxStat tabular data service. The Live Register series is of immense historical value and the CSO is keen to protect the continuity of the series, while also trying to make as much information as possible available to users, charting the labour market effects of COVID-19.

The CSO published an information note on 01 April 2020 for users on the implications of the COVID-19 income support measures on the Live Register and the Monthly Unemployment Estimates releases. That information note is available here: Information Note on Implications of COVID-19 on the Live Register and the Monthly Unemployment Estimates. The information note outlines why those in receipt of the COVID-19 income support payments are not included on the Live Register unless they meet the usual criteria to be included on the Live Register.

The unadjusted number of persons on the Live Register for each month since March 2020 may include a small number of applicants for the PUP who were advised to apply for Jobseekers Benefit if they have a dependant adult and at least one child, or four or more children in the case of no dependant adult.

The COVID-19 income supports were originally set up as short-term emergency income supports but they have been extended several times and there have been changes made in terms of the eligibility criteria and how they are being administered. The PUP and the EWSS are both currently expected to run until at least the end of June 2021.

The CSO has been working with, and will continue to collaborate with, both the DSP and the Revenue Commissioners to meet user needs for availability of detailed aggregates for the recipients of both the PUP and the TWSS/ EWSS respectively. Tables providing breakdowns of the numbers benefitting from the PUP and the TWSS and the numbers of persons on the Live Register for each week since March 2020 by sex, age group, county and nationality grouping are available at the following link: PxStat LRW Tables. This link also contains tables for the corresponding numbers included on the Live Register for each week as well as a total number of persons with overlaps removed who are either on the Live Register for each week or who were benefitting from either the PUP or the TWSS up to 31 August 2020. As part of the April 2021 Live Register release, the CSO began to publish monthly estimates up to the end of March 2021 of the numbers being directly supported by the EWSS. Weekly estimates of the numbers being directly supported by the EWSS will be published by the CSO shortly.

It should be noted that DSP has been paying arrears to recipients of the PUP, to account for the movement of people in and out of employment. The first arrears payment occurred on 01 December 2020. All arrears paid to date are included in the week of the entitlement period, rather than the week of payment.

The DSP have supplied supplementary information on whether PUP recipients were in full-time education when asked to certify their status on the MyWelfare.ie service. While it should be noted that this information is not complete, it is estimated that at least 8.1% of all recipients of PUP since March 2020 were attending full-time education at the time of certification. For those aged 25 years and over this could be as low as 1.3% while it is at least 33.8% for those aged under 25 years. If the PUP scheme did not exist, those persons, being in full-time education, would not be eligible to receive Unemployment Assistance or Unemployment Benefit and so would not be included on the Live Register.

Reference Periods

The reference periods for the Live Register and the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (where applicable) results are as follows

April 2021 – 29 March to 2 May 2021

March 2021 – 1 March to 28 March 2021

February 2021 - 1 February to 28 February 2021

January 2021 - 4 January to 31 January 2021

April 2020 - 30 March to 3 May 2020

From May 2015 (reference period) the reference period for the Live Register refers to the week of the last Thursday in the month, previously the reference period referred to the week of the last Friday in the month.

Standardised unemployment rates

The Standardised Unemployment Rate (SUR) series, previously in Table 3, has been discontinued from May 2015. It has been replaced by the Monthly Unemployment series which was published on 06 May 2021.

Labour Force Survey 

The Labour Force Survey (LFS), was launched in January 2018 with the publication of Quarter 3 2017 data (Q3 2017). The Labour Force survey replaced the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS).

The LFS provides quarterly estimates of the unemployment rate.

The calendar reference quarters for survey results are:
Q1 - January to March, Q2 - April to June, Q3 - July to September and Q4 - October to December.

Seasonal Adjustment

Since January 2011 the seasonal adjustment of the Live Register is completed by applying the X-12-ARIMA model, developed by the U.S. Census Bureau. Seasonal adjustment is conducted using the indirect approach, where each individual series is independently adjusted (male under 25 years, female under 25 years, male 25 years and over and female 25 years and over). To preserve consistency between the individual and aggregate series, the series for gender, age group and total Live Register are then created from these four component series.

The X-12 ARIMA method has the X-11 moving averages process at its core, but builds on this by providing options for pre-treating the series using a regARIMA approach for prior adjustment and series extension. In essence this methodology will estimate seasonal factors while taking account of temporary changes, outliers, level shifts and calendar effects (e.g timing of Easter).

All Live Register series are updated monthly. Revisions to the series are typically very minor in scale.

Seasonally adjusting the Live Register series during the Covid-19 crisis period will be challenging until the scale and shape of its impact on the time series is better understood. This initial seasonally adjusted result might be revised for some months ahead as future observations become available. Users should be aware that there is increases uncertainty around the seasonally adjusted figures during this period.

For additional information on the use of X-12-ARIMA see detailed note in the January 2011 Live Register release.

Jobseeker’s Benefit Duration

Prior to 19 January 2004 Jobseeker’s Benefit was payable for 15 months (390 days).

From 19 January 2004, Jobseeker’s Benefit could be paid for a maximum of 15 months (390 days) to people who had at least 260 paid PRSI contributions.  Jobseeker’s Benefit could be paid for a maximum of 12 months (312 days) to people who had less than 260 paid contributions (Refers to new claims).

From 15 October 2008, Jobseeker’s Benefit could be paid for a maximum of 12 months (312 days) to people who had at least 260 paid PRSI contributions.  Jobseeker’s Benefit could be paid for a maximum of 9 months (234 days) to people who had less than 260 paid contributions.

As of 3 April 2013, Jobseeker’s Benefit can be paid for a maximum of 9 months (234 days) to people who have 260 paid PRSI contributions. Jobseeker’s Benefit can be paid for a maximum of 6 months (156 days) to people who have less than 260 paid contributions (Refers to new claims).

Claimants getting Jobseeker’s Benefit for 6 months or more on 3 April 2013 (or 3 months for people with fewer than 260 contributions) will not be affected.

One-Parent Family Payment (OFP)

The One-Parent Family Payment is a social welfare payment for men and women who are younger than 66 and bring up children without the support of a partner and meet certain other criteria. Claimants on this scheme are not counted as part of the Live Register.

From July 2013 new rules came into operation reducing the age limits for the One-Parent Family Payment. This means that some people no longer qualify for the payment and may avail of other schemes or supports.

As a consequence, approximately 2,800 people in July 2013, 1,300 people in July 2014 and 2,786 people in July 2015, previously receiving the One-Parent Family Payment, made a claim for Jobseekers Allowance (JA) and will therefore appear on the Live Register.

For information on the age-related changes to the OFP scheme from July 2013, please see the following link to the DSP website:

http://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/278_One-Parent-Family-Payment.aspx

Live Register Flows

Live Register flows are calculated by analysing persons on the Live Register in the reference week of the reference month compared to those on the Live Register in the reference week of the previous month. The flows are calculated as follows:

Joined Live Register: Persons on the Live Register in the reference week of the current month who were not present on the Live Register in the reference week of the previous month.

Stayed on Live Register: Persons on the Live Register in the reference week of the current month who were also present on the Live Register in the reference week of the previous month.

Left Live Register: Persons not on the Live Register in the reference week of the current month who were present on the Live Register in the reference week of the previous month.

Inflows and outflows published in this release relate to persons moving on or off the Live Register. Inter-scheme movement is not counted as a Live Register flow. For example, if a claimant exhausts his/her entitlement to JB and opens a new JA claim, this is not counted as an outflow in JB and an inflow in JA. The person has moved scheme but has not joined nor left the Live Register. Thus, those persons who move schemes from one month to the next are counted as “Stayed on the Live Register”.

Live Register Area Analysis

The basis of the area analysis in Live Register statistics is the DSP local office of registration.  The areas served by Local Employment Offices do not correspond to specific geographic boundaries.  Therefore, registrants at a given local office do not necessarily come from a particular region or area which can be precisely delineated e.g. data for the Cork City Local Offices of Registration refers to all persons signing on in Cork City but may include persons not resident in Cork City. 

From January 2018, registrations which have yet not being assigned to a DSP local office of registration are included in the Live Register totals. Therefore, as these registrations are not included in the regional breakdowns, the sum of these regions may not add to the Live Register totals.

The latest available Live Register data by Province, County and Local Office of Registration are published on the CSO website, through the CSO PxStat, on the publication of this release, see link here.

NUTS2 and NUTS3 regions

The regional classifications in this release is based on the NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units) classification used by Eurostat. Until Q4 2017, the NUTS3 regions corresponded to the eight Regional Authorities established under the Local Government Act, 1991 (Regional Authorities) (Establishment) Order, 1993, which came into operation on 1 January 1994 while the NUTS2 regions, which were proposed by Government and agreed by Eurostat in 1999, were groupings of those historic NUTS3 regions.

However, the NUTS3 boundaries were amended on 21 November 2016 under Regulation (EC) No. 2066/2016 and have come into force from Q1 2018. These new groupings are reflected in the LFS results from Q1 2018 onwards. The changes resulting from the amendment are that County Louth has moved from the Border to the Mid-East and what was formerly South Tipperary has moved from the South-East to the Mid-West, resulting in the new NUTS2 and NUTS3 regions:

Occupations

Live Register occupational data is sourced from information collected by the DSP on the most recent occupation of claimants when they sign on the Live Register.  The classification used is based on the UK Standard Occupational Classification (SOC).  “No occupation” is an additional category and includes those who have never worked and those who have no stated occupation.

Age by Duration Analysis

Detailed tables relating to regional and scheme data are available on the CSO website through the CSO Main Data Dissemination Service, PxStat, to see these please click here.

Casual and part-time workers

The number of claimants on the Live Register who work on a casual and /or part-time basis is supplied by the DSP. People who work for part of a week may be eligible for Jobseeker’s Benefit or Jobseeker’s Allowance and may also be included on the Live Register, if the DSP is satisfied that they are not in full-time employment, are available for work and are looking for full-time employment.  

Nationality

Data in the nationality grouping table is sourced from information collected by the DSP on the nationality of claimants when they first sign on the Live Register.

For further information or assistance use the contact details below or e-mail labour@cso.ie

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