Economic Activity is referred to as "Employment Activity" in this section. As explained in the Background Notes, employment activity is defined using the Revenue PAYE payroll database. On this database, the level of activity could vary from having worked one week (this could be one day) per year to working full-time (or part-time) throughout the year. For the purposes of this analysis, any employments of less than €500 per annum and employments where the duration was less than two weeks in the year were excluded.
For the results presented below, employment activity has been determined for beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance aged 15 or above (for the year in question).
New beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance from 2022 had the highest percentage with employment activity in 2024, 77% or 7,851 people. This is compared with percentages of just below 70% for new beneficiaries in 2021 and 2023, however the volume of people is much larger for 2023 (6,014) compared to 950 from 2021.
New beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance from 2022 had the highest percentage with employment activity in 2023, 77% or 7,802 people. This is compared with percentages of 73%, 68% and 61% for new beneficiaries in 2021, 2020 and 2019 respectively.
It is also interesting to note that there are large increases in employment activity percentages one year after the Daily Expense Allowance begins. This is likely linked to the time it takes people seeking International Protection to access the labour force. Low percentages can be observed where year of activity and the starting year of the Daily Expense Allowance match. For example, in 2024 the employment activity percentage for new beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance from 2024 was 18%, the corresponding percentages for 2023 and 2022 were 19% and 29% respectively.
There are higher employment activity percentages for men in each year of employment activity for each starting year of the Daily Expense Allowance as shown in Figure 3.2.
New beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance from 2022 had the largest percentages for men and women, 83% for men and 65% for women. This difference was approximately 20 percentage points higher for men which was also the case for new beneficiaries in 2021 (77% for men and 56% for women) and 2023 (76% for men and 53% for women).
In 2023, a similar pattern can be observed in Figure 3.2 for new beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance from 2019 to 2023. New beneficiaries from 2022 had the largest percentages for men and women, 83% for men and 64% for women. The difference between men and women was approximately consistent for the other Daily Expense Allowance starting years of 2019 (67% for men and 52% for women), 2020 (74% for men and 58% for women) and 2021 (81% for men and 58% for women).
As noted in the previous section lower percentages can be observed where the year of activity and the starting year of the Daily Expense Allowance match. Male percentages remain higher than female percentages in these cases. For example, the 2024 employment activity percentage for new beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance in 2024 for men was 21% compared with 14% for women. This pattern was also observed for 2023 (23% for men and 10% for women) and 2022 (32% for men and 22% for women).
For new beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance in 2022, close to 70% of each age group has employment activity in 2024, with 79% of those aged 25 - 44 showing 2024 employment activity as shown by Table 3.2.
The 25 - 44 age group had the highest employment activity percentage for 2024 for new beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance from 2019 (65%), 2020 (72%), 2021 (73%), 2022 (79%), 2023 (72%) and 2024 (20%).
Similar trends can be observed for those with employment activity in 2023. For new beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance in 2022, more than 70% of each age group had employment activity in 2023, with just above 80% of those aged 25 - 44 showing 2023 employment activity as shown by Table 3.2.
The 25 - 44 age group had the highest employment activity percentage for 2023 for new beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance from 2019 (67%), 2020 (75%), 2021 (77%), 2022 (80%) and 2023 (20%).
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