Unemployment falls but uncertainty remains about the long-term fallout from Covid

Economists have said it will take some time for unemployment to fall back to 4.8% where it stood on the eve of the pandemic

People out shopping on Grafton St, Dublin. Measures of economic activity, including exchequer tax receipts to the end of July, suggest a strong recovery has been underway. 

New unemployment figures have eased concerns that long-term unemployment is set to become a running sore but major uncertainties remain about how long many thousands of people will be out of work despite evidence of a strong economic rebound.  

The CSO corrected its figures that it first published and then withdrew last week and the new figures show its two methods of measuring unemployment, the Covid and its seasonally adjusted measures, have both fallen in the month.