The data do not fully capture the impact of the pandemic due the International Labour Organisation definitions of employment and unemployment. For instance, many of those in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment are, for technical reasons, treated as employed. If all PUP recipients were added to the numbers of unemployed the unemployment rate would have been over 16 per cent. However this would still represent a 25 per cent increase in employment on a like-for-like basis with the second quarter last year when PUP numbers reached roughly 600,000. On this adjusted basis, the unemployment rate has subsequently fallen, to around 12½ per cent at end August, and will have fallen further in September in line with PUP numbers.