The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has estimated that the unemployment rate in April surged to 28.2% as disruption and business closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic hit the labour market.

The CSO figure includes people receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment introduced by the Government. The equivalent figure for March was 15.5%.

The crisis has had a particularly severe impact on younger workers, with the unemployment rate for those aged 15-24 jumping to 52.8%.

The CSO also released Live Register figures for April which showed that more than 1.2 million people are currently relying on some form of income support from the State.

Signing on

The number of people signing on under the standard Live Register measure was up 7,500 from March to 216,900.

The number of people receiving the pandemic payment more than doubled from March to hit 602,107, while more than 425,000 people are being helped by the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme.

The CSO has been trying to take account of the effects of the pandemic while preserving the traditional methods of measuring unemployment and the Live Register.

It says the April figures may be revised when further information becomes available.