Tens of thousands of people saw their income fall by more than 10% in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, the government’s economic planning agency CPB has said.

A study of the economic impact of the pandemic found that the number of people suffering a sharp dip in their income was 130,000 higher in 2020 than in 2019.

Altogether 175,000 people experienced a reduction in income, with those working in the hotel and catering sector most severely affected by the lockdown.

The CPB also said those who were hardest hit tended to have the smallest financial reserves to fall back on. Half the workers whose income fell had less than €10,000 in liquid assets.

Around half of people who lost their jobs during the first lockdown in the spring of 2020 had found paid employment again by the end of the year.

The CPB said its findings showed the need for structural reforms to the labour market to close the gap between permanent staff and freelancers, and to deal with the problem of bogus self-employment, where dependent workers are employed on flexible contracts.