Irish COVID-19 adjusted unemployment rate 28.2%, record high

Ireland's unemployment rate rose to 28.2% at the end of April including those receiving emergency coronavirus jobless benefit, the highest on record and up from just 4.8% before the crisis two months ago, the state's statistics office said on Friday.

The new COVID-19 Adjusted Unemployment rate increased from 15.5% in March after the number of people claiming the higher emergency payment more than doubled to 602,107, on top of the 216,900 on regular jobless benefits. Excluding the emergency coronavirus payment, the unemployment rate stood at 5.4%.

The adjusted unemployment rate does not include 427,400 more workers on a wage subsidy scheme for impacted companies, where the state agreed in March to pay 70% of wages up to a maximum of 410 euros a week for an initial 12-week period.