On February 4th, 2020 the Central Statistics Office (CSO) released the Monthly Unemployment figures for January 2020. The overall figure, covering people aged 15-74 years old, was 120,200, a decline of 4,000 over the year, the smallest annual decline since August 2012. The Monthly Unemployment Rate (MUR) was 4.8%, a decline of 0.3% over the year. Looking at these figures from a gender perspective, women account for 44% and men 56%, a year ago these figures were 43% and 57% respectively. Over the year the female MUR went from 4.8% to 4.6%, and the male MUR from 5.6% to 5% in January, 2020.
For people aged 25-74, there were 84,000 people unemployed, a decline of 4,500 over the year. The MUR for this age group was 3.8%, 0.4% lower than January 2019. Looking at these figures from a gender perspective, women account for 44% and men 56%, a year ago these figures were 45% and 55% respectively. Over the year, the male MUR went from 4.2% to 3.9%, while the female MUR went from 4.1% to 3.7%.
For people aged 15-24, there were 36,200 people unemployed, an increase of 500 over the year. The MUR for this age group was 11.8%, 0.6% lower than January, 2020. Looking at these figures from a gender perspective, women account for 44% and men 56%, a year ago these figures were 38% and 62% respectively. The number of young women who are unemployed increased by 2,100, though their unemployment rate only increased by 0.1 to 10.3%. While the number of young men who are unemployed decreased by 1,600 and their MUR decreased by 1.1 to 13.3% in January, 2020.