The number of people on the live register or receiving the pandemic unemployment payment (PUP) dropped nine per cent in November, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The total number fell 9.4 per cent to 216,959 over the month to November.
There were 164,626 people on the unadjusted live register for November 2021, while the seasonally adjusted live register total was 170,200, up 100 from October.
Meanwhile, 54,824 people were in receipt of the PUP in the last week of November, down 22,979 from last month and down 299,077 from a year ago.
The PUP closed to new applicants on July 8th, with a gradual reduction in rates introduced from September 7th.
Restrictions
“Users should consider the impact of Government restrictions when comparing the numbers of people in receipt of the PUP at different points in time,” CSO Senior Statistician Edel Flannery said.
Of the people in receipt of the PUP for the week ending November 28th, around a quarter were in each of the 35 to 44-year-old (27 per cent) and 45 to 54-year-old (23 per cent) age groups.
The CSO estimates that another 292,588 people were directly supported by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) in October 2021.
“Of the 292,588 persons currently estimated to have been directly supported by the EWSS in October 2021... 25.1 per cent were aged under 25 and 74.9 per cent were aged 25 years and over,” Ms Flannery said.
Total numbers
Just over half a million people were on the live register or benefited from Covid income supports to October 2021, the CSO also said on Friday.
October 2021 is the current low point of the CSO's tracking of the total number receiving unemployment supports.
In that month, 522,025 people were on the live register or were benefiting from the PUP, EWSS or the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS), down from 804,099 a year earlier.
Of those, 18.4 per cent were aged under 25 and 81.6 per cent were aged 25 years and over.
The current high point of the series was reached in April 2020, when 1,179,256 people were on the live register or receiving Covid income supports after they were first introduced in March 2020.
