Government notes the significant impact the pandemic has had on people’s livelihoods in Q4 jobs numbers
From Department of Finance; Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
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From Department of Finance; Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
Published on
Last updated on
The Central Statistics Office today (Thursday, 25 February 2021) published the Labour Force Survey (LFS) for the fourth quarter of last year, capturing the continuing impact of the pandemic on people’s livelihoods. The LFS showed a rise in the official unemployment rate to 6.0 per cent in the fourth quarter and a further year-on-year fall in total employment.
Although the official unemployment rate rose to 6.0 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020 from a low of 4.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2019, there are still many people that have lost employment as a result of the pandemic who do not meet the International Labour Organisation definition of unemployed. This is evident in the difference between the LFS unemployment rate and the CSO’s COVID-adjusted rate, which counts all recipients of the PUP as unemployed and stood at 19.4 per cent in December before rising again to 25 per cent by the end of January 2021. While 2.3 million people were officially employed in the fourth quarter according to the LFS, when adjusted for PUP recipients the figure would have stood at 1.97 million (some 390,000 lower) at the end of December and 1.83 million in January 2021.
Commenting on the figures, An Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar TD said:
‘Today’s numbers lay bare the devastating impact that the pandemic has had on the economy and employment. More than 400k jobs have been lost and a quarter of the labour force is now unemployed. It also shows the disparity and unfairness of the virus with job losses heavily and disproportionately affecting the private sector and sectors like retail, hospitality, tourism and entertainment especially.’
‘Maintaining social solidarity must be paramount and for this reason Government has decided to extend all financial supports for business and workers through to June 30th. This will help to protect incomes, maintain living standards and keep businesses going. When it is safe to re-open our economy ,we should do so, but not before. In doing so, we will need to ensure that we put in place a National Economic Plan to enable a return to full employment no later than 2023. It must focus on helping businesses and individuals worst affected to get back on their feet; to get businesses back open, people back to work or education and ensure that post-pandemic we have more security for everyone’
The Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe T.D., said:
“The labour market was on the economic front line since the onset of the pandemic. The rise in the LFS unemployment rate to 6.0 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, and 19.4 per cent at the end of the fourth quarter when all PUP recipients are included, in today’s figures shows the impact of the pandemic on people’s livelihoods. My Department has previously shown that these measures represent a lower and upper bound respectively of the true underlying rate, which lies somewhere around the mid-point of the two”.
Minister Donohoe added:
“The latest Level 5 public health restrictions have had a significant and rapid impact on our labour market with numbers of claimants for the PUP rising to peak of 481,000 at the start of February, with more than 1 million persons combined in receipt of income support from the State in the form of the PUP, the EWSS and the Live Register. However, I am encouraged by the fact that, the rise in the number of people relying on the PUP has stayed well below the peak of 600,000 from early May last year, and has fallen in recent weeks to now stand at 473,000. Moreover we are now in a position to start reopening our schools on a phased basis. If we continue our diligent efforts, as we have done to date in reducing the spread of the virus for a third time, many people will return to work once Level 5 restrictions are lifted.”
“The Government remains absolutely determined to support businesses, jobs, incomes and public health. Over the course of this year and last the Government has committed almost €38 billion in Covid related supports, or 19 per cent of GNI*. As recently as this week the PUP, EWSS, enhanced illness benefit and CRSS support schemes were extended to the end of June, while at the same time continuing to provide significant supports, through loans, grants, vouchers, commercial rate waivers and other business support schemes. The Government will soon publish a National Economic Plan setting out a pathway for recovery in the Irish economy over the medium term, with growing and sustaining employment as a top priority.”
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