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Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme

A CSO Frontier Series Output- What is this?

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The Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) is an economy-wide enterprise support scheme which is administered by the Revenue Commissioners. It replaced the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) from 01 September 2020 but there were a small number of EWSS claims in July and August 2020 in respect of newly hired or seasonally hired employees who were ineligible for the TWSS.

The Scheme provides a subsidy to qualifying employers based on the numbers of eligible employees on the employer’s payroll. The EWSS is currently expected to run until at least 30 June 2021. The Revenue Commissioners have provided TWSS and EWSS data to the CSO for statistical purposes and dissemination to users.

The CSO have published detailed weekly aggregates of the EWSS data for the first time today. The EWSS results presented in the tables cover the period from July 2020 through to the week ending 28 March 2021 and estimates the number of persons who are being directly supported by the EWSS. Please note that the estimates for more recent weeks of the EWSS are more likely to be subject to revision. Thus, while the EWSS estimates for the weeks of March 2021 are slightly lower than for February 2021, the March 2021 estimates may be revised upwards on a later update to the tables. Please see the Background Notes for more information including the reason for a lag in the EWSS data.

Figure 4.1 below presents the number of persons being directly supported by the EWSS by sex from the week ending 05 July 2020 through to the week ending 28 March 2021.  The week ending Sunday 04 October 2021 has the highest estimate of employees being directly supported by the EWSS (326,888) from the period July 2020 to the end of March 2021. This week also currently contains the highest weekly estimate of the number of females who were directly supported by the EWSS (157,077) while the peak for males occurred during the final week of February (171,141). The EWSS series for males and females were relatively close to each other when the scheme began but the number of males being supported has been greater than the number of females since September 2020. The EWSS series for males and females have diverged further since the start of 2021 with the male series becoming much higher than the female series. For the latest week for which EWSS data is currently published (week ending 28 March 2021), there were an estimated 294,007 persons (165,483 males and 127,885 females) being directly supported by the EWSS.

Figure 4.1 Number of persons being supported by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) each week by sex

Figure 4.2 below presents the number of persons being directly supported by the EWSS by age group from the week ending 05 July 2020 through to the week ending 28 March 2021. The peak of those being directly supported by the EWSS for the age groups up to and including 35-44 years all occurred in September 2020 or in the first week of October 2020. For all other age groups from 45-54 years and upwards the week ending Sunday 28 February 2021 has the current highest weekly estimate of the number of EWSS recipients in those age groups.

More than one in four (27.0%) of those currently estimated to have been directly supported by the EWSS for the week ending Sunday 28 March 2021 were aged 35-44 years. Similar, but slightly lower proportions were aged 25-34 years (23.7%) and 45-54 years (21.3%).

Figure 4.2 Number of persons being supported by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) each week by age group

Figure 4.3 below presents the number of persons being directly supported by the EWSS for three selected economic sectors; the Wholesale & Retail Trade sector, the Accommodation & Food Service Activities sector and the Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Service Activities sector. The trend of the EWSS series for each of these sectors is quite different.

The economic sector with the most employees being directly supported by the EWSS during 2020 was the Accommodation & Food Service Activities sector which peaked during the week ending 20 September 2020 at 88,875. The number of employees from that sector being supported by the EWSS then fell over the following weeks as Government restrictions changed, and it had halved by the week ending 22 November 2020 (45,398). The number of those working in the Accommodation & Food Service Activities sector being directly supported by the EWSS rose again during December and came to a second peak of 83,088 during the week ending 27 December 2020 before falling again during the third lockdown. By the week ending 17 January 2021, there were 47,894 persons being supported by the EWSS from this sector and the number has remained between 43,000 and 46,000 since then.

The trend of the number of employees from the Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Service Activities sector is similar to that of the Accommodation & Food Service Activities sector except that the series is much lower and the peaks in 2020 are less pronounced.

The sector with the most employees being directly supported by the EWSS during 2021 was the Wholesale & Retail Trade sector. From the first official week of operation of the EWSS (week ending 06 September 2020) through to the week ending 27 December 2020 there were between 30,000 and 42,000 persons working in the Wholesale & Retail Trade sector being directly supported by the EWSS. The number of employees from that sector being supported by the EWSS rose over the following weeks until it peaked during the week ending 31 January 2021 at 60,937. It remained at between 58,000 and 60,000 during February 2021 while current estimates for each week of March 2021 are close to 55,000. 

Figure 4.3 Number of persons in selected sectors being supported by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) each week

Figure 4.4 below presents the cumulative number of persons being directly supported by the EWSS from the week ending 05 July 2020 through to the week ending 28 March 2021. Before the EWSS officially replaced the TWSS at the start of September there were already 80,295 persons who had been directly supported by EWSS. By the end of the first official week of operation of the EWSS (week ending 06 September 2020), there were 289,583 persons who had been supported by the scheme. This rose to over 400,000 by the week ending 25 October 2020 and had exceeded 500,000 by the week ending 17 January 2021. The latest EWSS data available is for the week ending 28 March 2021 and, by then 562,411 people had received at least one EWSS payment, of which 53.9% were male, 20.5% were aged under 25 years and 48.2% were aged between 25 and 44 years of age.

Figure 4.4 Cumulative number of persons being supported by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) each week

Next Chapter >> Total Recipients of Income Supports