Over half of young workers now unemployed due to Covid-19 – Indeed

The unemployment rate rose to 5.4% in April on a seasonally-adjusted basis, up from March’s revised figure of 5.3%, and up from 5.2% twelve months ago. However, the CSO said that if all claimants of the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment were classified as unemployed, the adjusted unemployment rate could be as high as 28.2%. These figures are an estimate based on the Live Register and Covid-19 related claims, more detailed unemployment statistics will be available at a future date.

Jack Kennedy, an economist at global job site Indeed, comments on the latest CSO data:

“Coronavirus has already undone years of labour market growth in the space of a few weeks. Without a clear end in sight, this is worrying both on a macro and microeconomic level. With many of the sectors worst affected by the current crisis, such as hospitality and food service, not slated to open until the later stages of the government roadmap, it may be some time before we start to see the green shoots of recovery.

Alongside the job losses evident in these figures, we’ve also seen a sharp slowdown in firms’ hiring intentions. Job postings on Indeed Ireland are running at around half of last year’s volumes.

What has been striking about these numbers is the rate of youth unemployment and just how badly affected that segment of workers has been. Shockingly, if we use the new COVID-19 Adjusted Measure of Unemployment, over half of the workforce aged 15-24 are currently unemployed. Historically, it’s common for those who graduate during a recession to see the effects well into their career, so many graduates this year may need to adjust their entry into working life – whether that be starting their first job on a remote basis or diversifying the types of jobs they look for.

It’s also possible that we will see more domestic interest in jobs traditionally held by migrants, which has already happened in the UK, where searches for fruit picking jobs rose significantly.”