Almost quarter of a million Irish people still jobless by end of 2021, says ESRI

Vaccine rollout, combined with households splurging billions in unspent cash saved during the pandemic, will help economic fightback but will not be enough to stave off 10% unemployment by the end of 2021, ESRI predicts 

Getting back to February's pre-pandemic unemployment level of below 5% will take two or three years, Prof Kieran McQuinn said - with the caveat that this prediction is on the optimistic side. Picture: Larry Cummins

Almost 250,000 people will still be without jobs at the end of next year, even with a strong economic bounce and vaccines arriving en masse, one of the country's leading think tanks has warned.

The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) forecasts a muscular economic fightback as vaccine rollout combines with households splurging billions in unspent cash saved during the Covid-19 pandemic, but predicted it would not be enough to stave off 10% unemployment by the end of 2021.