Over 1m received income assistance from State in June

More than 213,000 people signed on to the live register last month and a further 438,933 people were receiving the pandemic unemployment payment, CSO data shows, as the coronavirus pandemic continued to hit the labour market.

On top of this, another 382,000 people were being supported by the temporary Covid-19 wage subsidy scheme, bringing the total receiving income assistance from the State to just in excess of 1 million, with some overlap between the schemes.

On the live register, the seasonally adjusted total for June was down 14,200 from the previous month. However, at 213,700, it remained substantially higher than the 190,400 recorded in June last year.

Of the total, 29,579, or 13.4 per cent, are under 25 years of age.

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More than 96,000 people under the age of 25 are receiving the pandemic unemployment payment, and more than 20,000 people under the age of 25 are in receipt of disability payments.

The National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI)called on the Government to prioritise dealing with youth unemployment, expressing concern about a lack of urgency on the matter in the programme for Government.

“At a time when we have 45.4 per cent youth unemployment and over 146,000 young people out of work, this omission is hard to understand or justify,” said James Doorley, NYCI deputy director. “We call on the new Government to address this deficiency in the coming weeks and months and remain committed to working with them in the interests of young jobseekers.”

Mr Dooley called for a review of youth unemployment measures, warning the country could not repeat past mistakes.

Stimulus package

“It is recognised that the new Government will have to borrow to fund a stimulus package in the next few years. While the current costs of borrowing money are low, these funds will have to be paid back over time. Young people as taxpayers will end up paying back the highest proportion of this investment, so it is only fair and in the interests of intergenerational solidarity that they should also benefit proportionately from these funds to restart the economy,” Mr Doorley said. “It also makes social and economic sense to invest in measures to support young people back into work, because their participation and contribution in the labour market will further drive the recovery.”