On December 4th, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) released the Live Register figures for November, 2020. There were 194,058 people on the Live Register, an increase of 16,504 on the same month last year. In Table A3 to this release the CSO note that 166,591 people were in receipt of a payment, and 27,467 were not: a year ago these figures were 159,724 and 17,830 respectively. Looking at the Register from a gender and age perspective: women account for 44% of the Live Register and young people account for 12%.
75,105 people were on the Register for more than a year, 7,103 more people than November, 2019. Men account for 59.7% of this figure, and women 40.3%. While 92% of those on the register for more than a year are aged 25 years and over.
In Table A2 (see link at end of report) the CSO notes that there were 351,424 people were on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) in November, an increase of 21,433 on October, 2020. Looking at these figures from an age perspective, young people, aged under 25 years, account for 25.4% of PUP recipients. While from a gender perspective, women account for 50.3% of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.
In Table A1 (see link at end of report) information is provided on the numbers of people ‘availing of Activation Programmes’. These figures always lag a month behind, and so in October 2020, there were 39,919 participants, a decrease of 7,695 on the same month last year. Over the year the numbers of people participating on employment programmes decreased by 17% to 26,144; while the numbers of people participating on education and training programmes decreased by 14% to 13,775 participants. In June SOLAS Full-time Training for Unemployed People became the largest programme, but that is no longer the case as the number of participants dropped to 5,871 in October. Community Employment is again the biggest programme, with 19,244 participants.