Ireland's latest coronavirus curbs put 85,000 temporarily out of work

Around 85,000 more people have claimed temporary COVID-19 jobless benefits since Ireland moved to the highest level of restrictions to fight the virus two weeks ago, data showed on Tuesday. Limiting restaurants to takeaway service and the closure of non-essential retail pushed claims up to almost 330,000, from 244,153 before the six-week measures were introduced on Oct. 22, but far below a peak of 600,000 during a stricter lockdown in May. Recipients of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) have been on the rise since hitting a post-lockdown low of 205,000 at the start of October. They are expected to have helped push Ireland’s unemployment rate up to around 20% in October, from 14.7% in September. October unemployment data is due on Wednesday.