Covid-19 left one quarter of Irish workers jobless in June

THE shocking impact of Covid-19 on the economy was revealed yesterday after official figures showed the jobless rate hit a staggering 23% in June.

The month saw a peak in jobless figures with 531,412 people unemployed, including 118,700 whose unemployment was not caused by Covid-19, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reported.

At the end of last year, the official number on social welfare was 110,600, a rate of 4.5%. However, as the lockdown came into force at the end of March, the numbers soared to 382,311, or 15.5%.

Results for April, May and June show employment totalled 2,222,500, a rate of 66%. But by the end of June, the Covid-19-adjusted measure of employment is estimated to have been 1,783,567, with the employment rate falling to 52%.

By the end of last month, the Covid-19-adjusted measure of employment was estimated at 1,947,922, with a 57.2% adjusted employment rate.

The Covid-19 hit to Irish workers was described as ‘considerable’ by CSO statistician Jim Dalton.

‘That impact started towards the end of Q1 [2020]. There were 118,700 persons classified as unemployed in Q2 with an associated unemployment rate of 5.1% for those aged 15-74 years,’ he said.

‘At the end of June 2020, the Covid-19-adjusted measure of unemployment is estimated to have been 531,412 with an associated Covid-19-adjusted unemployment rate of 23.1%.

‘By the end of July 2020, the adjusted measure of unemployment is currently estimated to have been 386,935 with an associated Covid-19support adjusted unemployment rate of 16.7%,’ Mr Dalton added.

The biggest job losses were in the accommodation and food services sector covering hotels and restaurants, which was down by 53,600, or 30%.

The administration and

sector lost 18,800 jobs, down 17%, while the building industry lost 17,800 jobs, dropping 12%.

Using the standard way of calculating the jobless figure, the total number of persons in the labour force was down 3.7%, or 89,600, to 2,341,200, from Q2 last year.

‘The number of persons not in the labour force was 1,632,600 and that was up 10.2%, or 150,800, from a year earlier,’ added Mr Dalton.

KBC Bank chief economist Austin Hughes said: ‘Jobs data for the second quarter of 2020 give a strong sense of the scale and breadth of the initial hit to the economy as activity was frozen to limit the health impact from the coronavirus.

‘On the normal statistical conventions used to measure employment, numbers at work in Ireland were 3.4%, or 78,000 lower, in the second quarter of 2020 than a year earlier.’

He also warned ‘there is no ready way of telling at this point how large and lasting the impact of the pandemic may be’ on the jobs market. Mr Hughes added: ‘However, the scale of impacts revealed in these numbers urges the importance of substantial and sustained policy support to minimise the permanent scarring on the Irish labour market.

‘The details of this data also suggest significant variations in impact across the economy. That suggests policy supports will need to increasingly become micro rather than macro focused.’ christian.mccashin@dailymail.ie

Impact was ‘considerable’