February 2020 Live Register Figures

On March 5^th, 2020 the Central Statistics Office (CSO) published the Live Register figures for February, 2020. The seasonally adjusted register figure for February was 182,500, and the unadjusted figure was 182,616, a decline of 14,318 on the same month last year.

36.6% of the Live Register, or 66,871 people, have been on it for more than a year: 10,542 fewer people than in February, 2019. Young people, aged under 25 years account for 6% of those on the Register for more than a year. The age group with the highest share of this part of the Register are those aged 60-64 years, with 14,426 people, followed closely by people aged 45-54 years, with 14,126 people. Looking at these figures from a gender perspective, women account for 41.3% and men 58.7%. Looking at the figures from a combination of age and gender, the largest group are men aged 35-44 years, accounting for 12.9% of this part of the Register.

Of the people who have been on the Register for more than a year, 36,980 people have been on it for three years or more, which represents 55.3% of those on the Register for more than a year, and 20.2% of the whole Register. Looking at this figure from the perspective of age, people aged 60-64 years are the biggest group, with 9,702 people in this age range. Looking at it from the perspective of age and gender, men aged 60-64 years are the largest group, accounting for 13.3% of this part of the Register.

According to the Annex Table there were 48,329 people participating on Activation Programmes in January, 2020: 4,032 fewer participants then in the same month in 2019. Over the year, participation on education and training programmes fell by 364 participants to 17,194. During this period the numbers of people on Full-time Training for Unemployed People increased by 1,865 participants, while the numbers of people on Back to Education courses went down by 2,229.

There were 31,135 participants on employment programmes, 3,668 fewer people than in January, 2019. Participation on the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance dropped by 37% to 4,037 people, which accounted for 64.7% of the decrease in employment programmes. An 883 drop in participation on the Tús, Community Work Placement Initiative, accounted for 24% of the decrease in employment programmes. Community Employment continued to be the biggest activation programme with 21,093 participants.