The unemployment rate in the Republic of Ireland is now over 20 per cent with the country under Level 5 restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) Labour Force Survey (LFS) for the third quarter of 2020 revealed an unemployment rate of 20.2 per cent, 501,640
This figure includes those on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP).
The impact of Level 5 restrictions can be seen as the unemployment rate stood at 7.1 per cent in quarter three, 174,700 people aged between 15 and 74.
However, the Covid-adjusted measure of unemployment was 15.9 per cent. This includes people on PUP.
There were 2,295,200 people in employment in the third quarter, an employment rate of 67.7 per cent for people aged between 15 and 64.
Commenting on the report, statistician Jim Dalton said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has had a considerable impact on the Irish Labour Market and that impact started towards the end of Quarter 1 2020.
"As the CSO is obliged to follow standard definitions and methodology when calculating the official estimates from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), it has been decided to compile the Quarter 3 2020 LFS estimates in the usual way and provide separate Covid-19 Adjusted Estimates.
"This approach preserves the methodology of the LFS while at the same time providing transparency around the current impact of Covid-19 on the Labour Market within Ireland."
