A further 300 people came off the live register in April, bringing the number in receipt of benefits down to 180,500 on a seasonally-adjusted basis.
While the live register is an imperfect measure of unemployment as people with part-time work can be entitled to benefits, it does broadly track conditions in the labour market. It has been falling steadily since the lifting of Covid-related restrictions and in tandem with wider labour market shortages.
The latest figures for April point to only a moderate contraction, however, suggesting a fall-off in demand from higher interest rates may be pushing back on the jobs-rich growth seen in recent quarters.
The latest Central Statistics Office (CSO) data shows the counties that saw the largest percentage decrease in the number of people on the live register in the 12 months to April were Kildare, Meath and Dublin.
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A total of 44,495 people in Dublin came off the register in the past year.
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The number of people on the live register for one year or more was 62,370, down 5,146 from a year earlier. There were 116,631 (65.2 per cent) on the register for less than one year.
A total of 18,497 people under the age of 25 were on the register in April, accounting for just over 10 per cent of all claimants. Those between the ages of 25 and 54 accounted for two-thirds of those on the live register in April.
Of those on the register, 23,093 people were displaced by the war in Ukraine and benefiting from the European Union’s Temporary Protection Directive. Two-thirds of those were women.
The cessation of the pandemic unemployment payment (PUP) in March last year impacted year-on-year changes in jobseekers’ benefit claims, with the number of recipients falling by 33.3 per cent (-18,088) in April 2023 compared with 12 months earlier, the CSO said.
