Around 6% of businesses that were operating in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic began, appeared to have closed by the end of last year, new data from the Central Statistics Office has found.
Of the 1.5 million people employed in all the businesses captured by the survey, just 2% had been working in those that shut down. "The highest proportion of enterprises that appear closed were in the real estate activities sector (10%) and the accommodation and food service activities sector (9%)," said Sorcha O'Callaghan, CSO statistician.
The survey also discovered that one in every ten businesses, employing around 4% of those at work, were at risk of closure at the end of 2021.
The remaining 84% of businesses claimed to be trading normally at the end of last year, the business survival research discovered.