On September 7th, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) released the Live Register figures for August 2020. There were 225,844 people on the Live Register in August, an increase of 26,751 on the same month last year. 75,805 people were on the Register for more than a year, the exact same figure as August 2019.
The CSO notes that there were 224,956 people were on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP), a decrease of 49,622 on July, 2020. While there were 359,095 people on the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS), 94,648 fewer than in July, 2020.
Looking at these figures from an age perspective, young people, aged under 25 years, account for 13.9% of those on the Live Register, 20.6% of those on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, and 16.8% of those on the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS). While from a gender perspective, women account for 45.8% of the Live Register, 47.7% of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, and 47.1% of the TWSS.
In Table A1 in the Live Register release information is provided on the numbers of people ‘availing of Activation Programmes’. These figures always lag a month behind, and so in July 2020 there were 54,662 participants, an increase of 15,886 on the same month last year. Over the year the numbers of people participating on employment decreased by 10% to 29,346; while the numbers of people participating on education and training programmes increased by 313% to 25,316 participants. In June SOLAS Full-time Training for Unemployed People became the largest programme and remains so with 21,254 participants in July. Community Employment is the next biggest programme, with 20,708 participants.