January’s Live Register
On February 5th, 2021 the Central Statistics Office (CSO) released the Live Register figures for January, 2021. There were 188,543 people on the Live Register, an increase of 4,788 on the same month last year. Looking at the Register from a gender and age perspective: women account for 44% of the Live Register and young people account for 11%.
77,638 people were on the Register for more than a year, 9,933 more people than January, 2020. Men account for 60% of this figure, and women 40%. While 92% of those on the register for more than a year are aged 25 years and over. Looking at these figures in more detail, the age group with the highest number of people on the register for more than a year are those aged 35-44 years, followed by people aged 45-54, and then people aged 25-34 years.
In Table A3 to this release the CSO note that 164,960 people were in receipt of a payment, and 23,583 were not in January 2021: a year ago these figures were 164,507 and 19,248 respectively.
In Table A2 the CSO notes that there were 479,633 people were on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) in January, an increase of 144,042 on December, 2020. Looking at these figures from an age perspective, young people aged under 25 years, account for 24% of PUP recipients. While from a gender perspective, women account for 45% of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.
In Table A1 information is provided on the numbers of people ‘availing of Activation Programmes’. These figures always lag a month behind. In December 2020, there were an estimated 41,107 participants, 7,448 fewer people than the same month last year. Over the year the numbers of people participating on employment programmes decreased by 15.5% to 26,645. Community Employment remains the biggest programme, with 19,440 participants. As the November and December data for the SOLAS Full-time Training for Unemployed People was unavailable, the CSO used the October data, so the numbers of people participating on education and training programmes are estimated to be 14,462, a decrease of 15% over the year.