Live Register total falls again as labour market continues to tighten

A further 3,900 people came off State job supports last month, a reflection of the tightening labour market, figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

There were 177,100 people on the Live Register in April. The number receiving benefits has fallen sharply since the removal of Covid-19 restrictions and the ending of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) in March.

The CSO noted that the PUP scheme has now ended and final payments were issued for the week ending March 25th.All PUP recipients have either transferred to a Jobseeker’s scheme or had their PUP claim closed, it added.

In March, 436,056 people were on the Live Register or were benefitting from the PUP, the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) or the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS). This was down from a pandemic high of just under 1.2 million in April 2020.

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The Live Register is not a measure of unemployment as people with part-time work can be entitled to benefits, but it does broadly track improvements in the labour market.

The State’s official jobless rate fell to 4.8 per cent in April, down from 5.1 per cent the previous month, around the pre-Covid level.

The decline in the jobless rate here comes despite the ongoing uncertainty caused by the war in Ukraine and rising concerns about the cost of living.

A decline in real income triggered by higher inflation is expected to weigh on headline growth and activity in the coming months.

Separate production data from the CSO showed manufacturing output rose by almost 13 per cent in the first quarter of 2022 but was 5.7 per cent lower on an annual basis.

Manufacturing in the Republic is dominated by multinationals in the life sciences sector.