Saturday, April 6, 2013

6/4/2013: Irish Live Register by Nationality: Some Trends


Yesterday, I blogged about Live Register data on overall levels of unemployment supports in Ireland. Today - few charts summing up Live Register trends by nationality.

Total number of persons (officially) on the Live Register declined 2.07% y/y in March, following a steeper decline of 2.40% in February. Compared to March 2011, current reading is down 3.65%.

Meanwhile, the number of Irish Nationals on Live Register fell 1.89% y/y in March, following a decline of 2.39% in February. Current reading stands 3.68% below March 2011 and is down 10.68% on the crisis-period peak. Q1 2013 posted an increase of 1.43% on Q4 2012 and is down 2.21% on Q1 2012 and down 3.45% on Q1 2011.

The number of Non-Irish Nationals on Live Register declined at stronger 2.86% y/y in March than for Irish Nationals. larger decline of 2.45% was recorded for Non-Nationals in February 2013 as well. However, compared to March 2011, current reading is down 3.50% against the comparable period decline of 3.68% for the nationals. Q1 2013 reading for non-Nationals was 3.31% ahead of Q4 2012 - a sharper increase than for Nationals. Q1 2013 reading was down 2.50% for non-Nationals compared to Q1 2012, which represents a sharper decline than for Nationals. Compared to Q1 2011, however, Q1 2013 reading is down 3.03% for non-Nationals against 3.45% for Nationals.

In relative terms, Irish Nationals accounted for 82.16% of the Live Register in March 2013 against 82.01% in march 2012, while for non-Nationals the same ratios were 17.84% in Q1 2013 against 17.99% in Q1 2012. Chart below illustrates:


With small scale changes, there is no to-date reversal in the flat trend in relative shares of two groups in total Live Register numbers that was established around mid-2009 and that corresponds to higher share of Live Register captured by non-Nationals and lower share captured by Nationals. You can clearly see the overall flat trend.

In dynamic terms, chart below illustrates time trends in Live Register presence of three core groups: EU15 (ex-Ireland), EU12 (Accession States) and non-EU migrants.


Share of the EU15 (ex-Ireland) migrants of the total Live Register count fell to 4.8% in March 2013 from 4.87% in March 2012. Over the same time, share of EU12 (Accession States) migrants rose from 9.91% to 9.94%, while share of non-EU migrants declined from 3.21% to 3.10%.

Again, quite interesting dynamics in the above chart. For EU12 Accession States, strong seasonality (and these are already seasonally adjusted stats) shows rises and falls in temporary employment in agriculture and retail sectors, but overall trend since mid-2010 is flat. In contrast, EU15 ex-Ireland trend is that of a decline in Live Register presence. Live Register numbers for non-EU nationals is basically flat since late 2007 and shows no elevation due to crisis. In other words, EU12 nationals number on the Live Register were a strongest driver of Live Register participation increases amongst non-nationals during the crisis and now are changing roughly in line with Live Register changes overall. EU15 ex-Ireland numbers have declined relative to overall Live Register, and non-EU nationals numbers have fallen over the period 2006-2008 and then remained steady in line with overall Live Register trend.

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