Liveregisterfiguresshow‘significant’ impactofCOVID-19onlabourmarket
THE latest set of monthly Live Register figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has given a clearer picture of how the COVID-19 crisis is impacting the labour market, both locally and at national level.
The figures for April have revealed that the total number of people signing the register on County Cork increased for the second month in succession following an eight-year period of consecutive reductions.
As the month drew to a close there were 16,553 signing the register across Cork County, an increase of 743 on figures recorded for the previous month. That March total of 15,810 was an increase of 1,067 on the figure of 14,473 recorded at the end of February.
While the April total is significantly lower than at its highest point in 2011, when the figure stood at 44,558, it is still a major cause for concern given the current COVID-19 restrictions in place and the uncertainty regarding when they will be lifted, allowing many business to reopen.
The trend has been mirrored across North and Mid- Cork, with the combined figure for the social welfare offices in Mallow, Fermoy, Newmarket and Macroom at 3,547. This represented a more-than 13-per-cent increase on the figure for February for the four offices prior to the onset of the pandemic.
Broken down, the April total for Fermoy, which had risen above the 1,000 mark in March for the first time in two years, stood at 1,107, representing a 15.3-per-cent increase on the February total.
The figures for Mallow stood at 1,111 (a 12.9-per-cent increase on February); Newmarket, 691 (up by 6.6 per cent); and Macroom, 638 (up by 12.1 per cent). These figures are, in turn, a reflection of the overall national trend, with the total number of people signing the live register across the country at the end of April standing at 214,741. This was an increase of 31,141 (or 14.7 per cent) on the February total.
It should be pointed out that the live register is not designed to measure unemployment. It includes part-time workers, those who work up to three days a week, and seasonal and casual workers who are entitled to claim jobseeker’s benefit or jobseeker’s allowance.
The CSO said the overall national figures show how the COVID-19 crisis has had a “significant impact” on the labour market during the month of April.
They revealed that, during the last week of April, some 602,107 people were in receipt of the weekly COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment. A further 425,204 were benefiting from the Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme.