Still twice as many Irish people unemployed compared to pre-Covid figures

Twice as many Irish people are still unemployed compared to pre-pandemic figures. 

That's according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), which reported that the Covid-19 crisis has "continued to have a significant impact on the labour market". 

The new data showed 10% of people are currently unemployed when recipients of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) are taken into account. 

Although the current unemployment rate is lower than it was in September 2020 (15.9%), it's still twice that of pre-pandemic numbers (5.3% in September 2019). 

According to the CSO, if all claimants of PUP were classified as unemployed, the Covid-19 Adjusted Measure of Unemployment indicates a rate of 10.4% of unemployment in males and 9.6% in females.

Using this adjusted system, almost 20% of of those aged 15 to 24 are out of work with 8.4% of those aged 25 to 74 unemployed.