Impact of COVID-19 on Business and the Labour Market Q2 2022

Introduction

The ‘Impact of COVID-19 on Business and the Labour Market’ series examines the impact of Government pandemic income support schemes on an enterprise’s payroll employment. The analysis tracks the 2020 business population through the pandemic and splits enterprises into four categories based on their change in payroll employment relative to the first quarter of 2020 before COVID-19-related restrictions were initially implemented. 

For example, if an enterprise had 100 payroll employees in Q1 2020 and 90 payroll employees in Q2 2022 then it would be categorised as “Fewer payroll employees”. However, if they had 99 payroll employees in Q2 2022 then it would be in the “Similar payroll employees” category. 

The population of enterprises in this publication refers to the 2020 Structural Business Statistics (SBS) population and excludes enterprises in Agriculture, Financial Services, Public Administration, Education, Human Health & Social Work, among others. The specific sectors included are NACE B-N (excluding K), R & S. Within this population, the analysis focuses on the enterprises with three or more payroll employees in 2020. Since the enterprise population is based on the reference year 2020, any new enterprises that have commenced trading over the period Q1 2021 to Q2 2022 are not captured in this release. For detailed description see Background Notes.

Enterprises that availed of support more likely to have more payroll employees in Q2 2022

Almost two in five (39.2%) of enterprises that availed of a Government pandemic income support had more payroll employees in Q2 2022 compared with Q1 2020. This compares with 26.9% of enterprises that did not avail of Government pandemic income support.

A higher proportion of businesses that did not avail of a Government pandemic income support had no payroll employees (18.3%) in Q2 2022 compared to 13.1% of enterprises that did avail of supports.

A higher proportion of enterprises that had staff avail of PUP had zero payroll employees (13.5%) in Q2 2022 compared with 7.9% of enterprises that availed of the WSS. See Figure 2.1 and Table 2.2.

Six in ten businesses that had all staff on PUP during lockdown returned to pre-COVID-19 levels or had more employees by Q2 2022

More than 60% of enterprises where all staff availed of PUP had similar or greater number of payroll employees by Q2 2022. Compared with Q1 2020, 21.9% of those enterprises had similar number of staff in Q2 2022 and 39.9% had greater number of staff. A fifth had fewer payroll employees in Q2 2022 compared with Q1 2020.

In the early months of COVID-19, more than a quarter (27.6%) of these enterprises had no paid employees at the end of Q2 2020. This dropped to 10.8% in Q3 2020 before increasing to 25.8% in Q1 2021. In Q2 2022, 17.9% had zero payroll employees. See Figure 2.2 and Table 2.2.

Accommodation & Food Services had highest proportion of enterprises with zero payroll employees in Q2 2022

The sectors with the highest proportion of enterprises having no payroll employees in Q2 2022 were Accommodation & Food (22.2%), Other Services (19.8%), Real Estate (14.6%) and Construction (13.8%).

More than four in ten Cultural enterprises had fewer or no payroll employees by Q2 2022. Compared with Q1 2020, 11.2% had no paid employees and 32.0% had fewer payroll employees (32.0%) in Q2 2022. More than a third (34.5%) of Cultural enterprises had more payroll employees in Q2 2022.

A higher proportion of traditional enterprises (13.3%) had zero payroll employees in Q2 2022 compared with 8.7% of modern businesses. More than four in ten (43.3%) of modern enterprises had increased personnel over the COVID-19 period while just under four in ten (39.0%) of traditional firms had more staff. See Figure 2.3 and Table 2.3.

More than four in ten industrial firms increased employment during COVID-19

Of the 5,292 Industrial enterprises in the analysis, 43.4% had more paid staff in Q2 2022 compared with Q1 2020. In Q2 2020, 13.6% of enterprises in Industry had more employees on the payroll. More than a quarter (27.5%) had more payroll employees in Q1 2021 before increasing to 42.3% in Q3 2021.

The proportion of the 2,351 enterprises in the Information & Communication sector grew each quarter from 15.2% in Q2 2020 to 42.7% in Q3 2021. It fell slightly to 40.8% in Q4 2021 before increasing to 43.0% in Q2 2022.

In Q2 2020, 11.4% of the 15,868 enterprises in Wholesale and Retail trade had more paid employees compared to Q1 2020. The proportion increases to more than a quarter (27.3%) in Q4 2020. In Q1 2021 the proportion falls to just under a quarter before increasing to 40.5% in Q2 2022.  See Figure 2.4 and Table 2.3.

Enterprises dependent on tourism had a high level of fluctuation in payroll employment

In Q2 2020, more than 80% of tourist enterprises that availed of a Government pandemic income support had either no paid employees (15.7%) or fewer paid employees (65.9%) compared with pre-COVID-19 levels in Q1 2020. The corresponding percentages in Q3 2020 were 8.5% and 48.8% respectively before increasing to 17.1% and 69.0% in Q1 2021. By Q2 2022, almost a third of mainly tourism enterprises had fewer staff (18.4%) or no staff (13.8%).

Some 5.9% of mainly tourism enterprises had more payroll employees in Q1 2021 compared to Q1 2020 while a third (33.5%) had more staff in Q1 2022 compared to Q1 2020. See Figure 2.5 and Table 2.4.

Larger enterprises more likely to have increased staff numbers

More than half of both large (52.6%) and medium (52.2%) enterprises that availed of a Government pandemic income support had more staff in Q2 2022 than Q1 2020 while 34.2% of micro enterprises had.

Of micro enterprises that availed of state support, 16.4% had no staff in Q2 2022 while 6.9% of small enterprises, 3.9% of medium enterprises, and 4.1% of large enterprises had no staff. See Figure 2.6 and Table 2.5.