The Irish unemployment rate is at 26.1% when people who lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 crisis are included.

The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that just over half of workers aged 15 to 24-years-old were out of a job last month.

The unemployment rate is down slightly on the high of 28% recorded last month.

It stands at 26.6% for men and 25.5% for women. It is at 22.5% for workers over the age of 25-years-old.

CSO statistician Edel Flannery said the COVID-19 crisis continued to have a significant impact on the labour market last month.

Monthly unemployment rate

When people who are out of work due to the outbreak are not included in the figures, the unemployment is at 5.6% - up from 5.4% in April.

It stands at 5.5% for men and 5.7% for women.

Without taking the COVID payments into account, some 13.5% of workers under the age of 25 were unemployed last month – with the figure standing at 4.5% for people over 25-years-old.

It comes after over 35,000 people signed off the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) scheme.

The Department of Social Protection issued payments of €190.2m to 543,200 people yesterday – a drop of 36,200 on the number of people paid at the same point last week.

Around 508,000 people are being paid through the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme. Nearly 560,000 employers are making use of the scheme.