Many businesses that availed of the Government’s main Covid-19 supports had more employees on their payroll in June than they did immediately pre-Covid – with large enterprises more likely to have added jobs since the start of the pandemic than their smaller counterparts.
A report by the Central Statistics Office on the impact of Covid-19 on Irish business and the labour market, published on Tuesday also reveals employers claimed one of the two wage subsidies schemes for 60 per cent of all workers in the State.
Just under 40 per cent of those who received the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) over the past two years were in the same primary employment in the second quarter of 2022 as they had been in the first quarter of 2020. That compares with 70 per cent of employees who had not received any State supports during the pandemic.
Overall more than 80 per cent of workers covered by a Government pandemic income support payment were still in PAYE employment in the second quarter of 2022.
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Incidence of employee “churn” over the period was notable in the accommodation and food services sector, which also had the largest proportion of employees in receipt of PUP over the course of the scheme. Fewer than 34 per cent of workers in the sector who received the PUP payment were in the same job in the second quarter of this year compared with almost 48 per cent of workers who received the employee wage subsidy scheme or the temporary wage subsidy scheme.
More than 30 per cent of people working in accommodation and food services at the start of the pandemic were working in a different economic sector by the end of June 2022, the CSO said.
The information and communication sector had the highest rate of churn, the CSO said, with just 25.4 per cent in the same primary employment.
The industrial sector had the lowest rate of job switching among workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic and received the PUP, with more than half (53.7 per cent) in the same job as pre-Covid 2020.
Young workers, those aged between 20 and 24, were the age cohort least likely to be in the same employment two years into the pandemic at just 21.9 per cent. That compared with 55-59-year-olds, 59.5 per cent of whom were in the same primary employment as at the outset of the Covid crisis.
Nearly four in 10 businesses that availed of Government supports over the two years had more employees on the payroll in the second quarter of 2022 than immediately before the pandemic. That compares with almost 27 per cent of businesses that did not receive supports.
Some 43.4 per cent of businesses in the industrial sector had more paid staff in the second quarter of this year compared with pre-pandemic times. Accommodation and food services had the highest proportion of businesses with no payroll employees in the second quarter at 22.2 per cent.
Larger businesses that availed of Covid supports were also more likely to have added jobs over the period. More than half of large (52.6 per cent) and medium (52.2 per cent) enterprises that availed of a Government pandemic income support had more staff, compared with 34.2 per cent of micro-enterprises.
