On April 6th 2022, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) published the Monthly Unemployment (MU) figures for March 2022. 146,400 people were unemployed in March 2022, a drop of 42,100 over the year. While the Monthly Unemployment Rate (MUR) was 5.5%, a decline of 2.2 percentage points. Unemployment decreased for both men and women over the period, by 26,300 and 15,900 respectively. Women accounted for 50% of the unemployed in March, 2022, and 47% in March, 2021.
In March 2022, 45,600 people aged 15-24 were unemployed: 8,000 fewer young people than a year ago. Their MUR was 12.3% in March 2022, 6.4 percentage points lower than March 2021. Over the year unemployment amongst young men decreased by 20% to 20,200, and their unemployment rate was 11.4%. Unemployment amongst young women decreased by 10% to 25,400, and their unemployment rate was 13.1%. In March 2022, women accounted for 56% of those unemployed in this age category, in comparison to 53% in March 2021.
For people aged 25-74, 100,700 people were unemployed, a decrease of 34,200 people over the year and their MUR decreased by 1.9 percentage points to 4%. Over the year unemployment decreased for men by 29% to 53,000, and their MUR was 4.4%. Unemployment also decreased for women, by 21% to 47,700, and their Monthly Unemployment Rate (MUR) was 4.4%. Women accounted for 47% of those unemployed in this age category in March, 2022, an increase of 2 percentage points over the year.
For the first time in two years the Central Statistics Office are not publishing unemployment data to allow for and capture the impact of COVID-19 on the labour market. In this release they note that “As the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) scheme has ceased, the COVID-19 Adjusted Measure of Unemployment, (previously published in Table A1 of the Monthly Unemployment Estimates release and PxStat series MUM02), is no longer available.“