The Covid-19 crisis continues to have a "significant" impact on the labour market here, new figures from the Central Statistics Office confirm again today.
The CSO figures show that the unemployment rate, including those receiving temporary Covid-19 jobless benefits, rose to 20.2% in October from a revised rate of 15.9% in September.
The rise in jobless figures came after strict new restrictions were introduced in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Around 85,000 more people have claimed temporary Covid-19 jobless benefits since the move to the highest level of restrictions to fight the virus two weeks ago.
Today's figures also show an unemployment rate of 18.9% for men and a jobless rate of 21.7% for women in October.
Analysing today's figures by age, the CSO also said the Covid-adjusted unemployment rate for those between the ages of 15 and 24 stood at 45.3%.
The jobless rate, which stood at 4.8% before the coronavirus crisis, hit a record 28.8% in April after 600,000 people claimed the special payments, which are due to expire next April.
When those on the Covid-19 payments are excluded, the CSO said the unemployment rate stood at 7.3% in October, unchanged from September's rate, and up from 4.7% in October 2019.
Commenting on today's CSO figures, Andrew Webb - chief economist at Grant Thornton Ireland - said they paint a grim picture of a labour market thrown into turmoil by Covid-19.
"While not unexpected, given the lengthening impact of the pandemic, the fact that one in five people in the labour market are not working is a grave situation," Mr Webb said.
He said that from a recovery perspective, the fact that the underlying "standard" rate of unemployment is now 66,300 higher than one year ago shows there is evidence of longer term damage being inflicted on parts of the labour market.
But he added that amid the labour market gloom, there are bright spots, with sectors like life-sciences, med-tech, ICT and professional services performing well.
