New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that more than 870,000 individuals availed of a Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) from March 2020 up to the end of August 2021.
The CSO's latest Economic Life and Covid-19 in Ireland research also shows that household expenditure on goods and services fell by €10 billion in 2020 compared with 2019.
Spending on restaurants and hotels was the most affected, falling by €6.5 billion, as many were closed due to Covid-19 restrictions at times during the year, the CSO noted.
It also said that household expenditure on alcoholic drinks, which were bought for home consumption, rose by close to €0.5 billion in 2020.
After the arrival of the Covid pandemic in Ireland in March 2020, the numbers in employment fell by 158,100 in the second quarter of the year compared to the same time in 2019.
They remained below comparable 2019 levels for the third and fourth quarters of 2020 as well as the first quarter of this year.
But employment levels rebounded in the second quarter of 2021, with 211,000 more people in employment than the previous year, and 52,900 more than in 2019.
The CSO noted, however, that higher employment levels were not experienced across all sectors.
While Information & Communication had 20% more employees in the second quarter of 2021 than the second quarter of 2019, Accommodation & Food Service Activities had almost a third fewer employees.
Today's CSO figures also show that households spent less on goods and services during 2020.
Despite a 22% fall in retail sale volumes in the second quarter of 2020 compared with the same time in 2019, the volume of sales was almost 10% higher in the third quarter of 2020 and by 3.3% in Q4 2020 than the same quarters in the previous year.
By the second quarter of 2021, retail sale volumes were 8.7% greater than the same quarter pre-pandemic in 2019.
The CSO said that while average consumer prices fell by 0.3% in 2020, by the second quarter of 2021 prices were 1.1% more expensive than the same quarter in 2019.
It also noted that gross saving of households increased from €11.9 billion in 2019 to €31.5 billion in 2020 as people saved instead of spending on meals out and leisure activities.
Meanwhile, new home completions fell by 536 units in 2020 compared with 2019 while the cost of building and construction materials rose slightly.
But by the second quarter of 2021 new home completions had rebounded and were higher than the same quarter pre-pandemic in 2019, while building and construction materials increased in cost by 5.7% over the same time.
