DUBLIN, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Ireland’s unemployment rate, including people receiving temporary COVID-19 jobless benefits, fell to 7.9% in October from a revised 8.9% in September, the Central Statistics Office said on Wednesday.
The COVID-19 adjusted unemployment rate hit a peak of 31.5% last year. Excluding Pandemic Unemployment Payments, which will be withdrawn in February, the rate was unchanged at 5.2% after the previous month’s figures were also revised.
Ireland’s finance ministry forecast in September that unemployment would average 7.2% next year and fall to 6% in 2023 as the economy continues to recover rapidly from pandemic-related disruption. (Reporting by Padraic Halpin Editing by Mark Potter)
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