COVID-19 continues to impact the Labour Market in Ireland in Q2 2020 - CSO Labour Force Survey

• Results for Q2 2020 show that employment totalled 2,222,500 with an associated Employment Rate of 65.7% for those aged 15-64 years
• At the end of June 2020, the COVID-19 Adjusted Measure of Employment is estimated to have been 1,783,567 with an associated COVID-19 Adjusted Employment Rate of 52.2%
• By the end of July 2020, the COVID-19 Adjusted Measure of Employment is currently estimated to have been 1,947,922 with an associated COVID-19 Adjusted Employment Rate of 57.2%
• There were 118,700 persons classified as Unemployed in Q2 2020 with an associated Unemployment Rate of 5.1% for those aged 15-74 years
• At the end of June 2020, the COVID-19 Adjusted Measure of Unemployment is currently estimated to have been 531,412 with an associated COVID-19 Adjusted Unemployment Rate of 23.1%
• By the end of July 2020, the COVID-19 Adjusted Measure of Unemployment is currently estimated to have been 386,935 with an associated COVID-19 Adjusted Unemployment Rate of 16.7%

---

​The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (25 August 2020) issued results from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) for Q2 2020.

Commenting on the report, Jim Dalton, Statistician, 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 2 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.

Using the standard International Labour Organisation (ILO) criteria, the unadjusted number of persons aged 15 years and over in employment fell by 3.4% or 76,600 to 2,222,500 in the year to Q2 2020. The greater rates of decrease in employment in specific sectors were in Accommodation and Food Services (-29.6% or -53,600), Administration and Support (-17.2% or -18,800) and Construction (-12.1% or -17,800). The Employment Rate for those aged 15-64 years was 65.7% in Q2 2020.

When the effects of COVID-19 are taken into account, the COVID-19 Adjusted Measure of Employment, or lower bound of the number of persons aged 15 years and over in employment, is estimated to have been 1,783,567 at the end of June with an associated COVID-19 Adjusted Employment Rate of 52.2% for those aged 15-64 years. By the end of July 2020, these are estimated to have stood at 1,947,922 and 57.2% respectively.

Using the standard ILO criteria, the unadjusted number of persons aged years who were unemployed in Q2 2020 stood at 118,700 with an associated Unemployment Rate of 5.1%.

On 05 August 2020, as part of the Monthly Unemployment Estimates release for July 2020, the CSO published COVID-19 Adjusted Unemployment Volumes and Rates for the end of June 2020 which corresponded to 531,412 persons and 23.1% respectively for persons aged 15-74 years. By the end of July 2020, these are estimated to have stood at 386,935 and 16.7% respectively.

In Q2 2020, using the standard methodology, the total number of persons in the labour force was down 3.7% or 89,600 to 2,341,200 from Q2 2019. 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.’

Commenting on the importance of sampled individuals taking part in the LFS, Jim Dalton, Statistician, added: ‘Following public health guidelines regarding COVID-19, our interviewers no longer call to homes but conduct interviews over the phone. Selected households will receive introductory letters by post asking them to ring to schedule an interview. These surveys give us a picture of the economic and social situation of the citizens of Ireland, in a way, and with a level of accuracy, no one else can gain. If you are asked to take part in a CSO survey, please do so. It means that when CSO figures are quoted you know they’re accurate, because you told us.’

Commenting on a different and new type of output also being released today, Edel Flannery, Senior Statistician said: ‘Alongside the LFS release today, the Labour Market analysis area of the CSO is also publishing the first in a series of high-level insight bulletins investigating the impact of COVID-19 on the labour market. These new outputs are designed to provide additional insight into the effect of COVID-19 on the labour market in Ireland by providing high-level supplementary analysis to users alongside the current outputs and metrics. The data is sourced from the LFS, administrative datasets and linkage of these sources. The insight bulletin being published today is specifically designed to give some context to the standard LFS results for Q2 2020 (Insight Series:Impact of COVID-19 on the Labour Market). Further iterations of this new output are likely to provide extra detail and focus on specific aspects of the labour market.’