On December 2nd, 2020, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) released the Monthly Unemployment (MU) figures for November. The CSO continues to publish these figures with and without the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase in the official / unadjusted data over the past year illustrates the wider impact of COVID-19 on the labour market.
In November, 2020, 186,900 people were classified as unemployed, and their Monthly Unemployment Rate (MUR) was 7.5%. In November 2019, 71,800 fewer people were unemployed and their MUR was lower, at 4.7%.
In November, 2020 there were 62,900 people aged 15-24 unemployed, almost double the 2019 figure. Their MUR was 20.2%, an increase of 9.5% on November 2020. For people aged 25-74, 124,100 people were unemployed, an increase of 40,500 people. Their MUR was 5.7%, an increase of 1.8% over the year.
The impact of COVID-19
To allow for and capture the impact of COVID-19 on the labour market, the Central Statistics Office produce a lower and an upper bound to the monthly unemployment figures. The ‘upper bound’ assumes that everyone on a COVID-19 unemployment payment would be classified as unemployed. In this case the number of people out of work increases to 525,015 and the unemployment rate is 21%.
For people aged 15-24 years, the upper bound of people out of work stands at 142,342 and their Monthly Unemployment Rate (MUR) moves from a lower bound of 17.6% to an upper bound of 47.3%. While for the older age group, people aged 25-74 years, the upper bound of people out of work stands at 382,673, and their MUR ranges from 5.5% to 17.4%.