THE NUMBER of people signing on to the Live Register declined slightly in April, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The standardised unemployment rate fell from 14.7 per cent to 14.6 per cent in April. The decline was attributed to a 0.4 per cent fall in the number of people signing on the Live Register.

Last month 439,571 people signed on the Live Register, an increase of 6,914, or 1.6 per cent over the year. In the year to April 2010 an additional 50,781 people joined the register.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of males signing on declined by 1,600 last month. The number of women signing on was unchanged.

The number of female claimants on the Live Register has increased by 7,997 or 5.5 per cent to 152,826 over the year to the end of April 2011, while the number of male claimants decreased by 1,083 or 0.4 per cent to 286,745.

This compares with increases of 20,788, or 16.8 per cent and 29,993 or 11.6 per cent for females and males respectively in the year to April 2010.

Irish nationals accounted for 82.4 per cent of all claimants on the Live Register, up 2.2 per cent on the preceding year. The number of foreign nationals decreased by 1.1 per cent.

Minister for Jobs and Enterprise Richard Bruton said while the figures marked a modest improvement: “We’re not going to be sending up any flares celebrating this . . it is still a very poor figure. We need to create momentum for a turning point in what has been a very grim number of years. Huge mistakes have been made in policy and this Government is determined to put them right.”

The number of casual and part-time workers on the Live Register increased over the year by 6,485 or 8.2 per cent to 85,594, the latest figures show.

Casual and part-time workers in April accounted for 19.5 per cent of those on the Live Register, an increase from 12.4 per cent three years earlier. The number of people aged 25 years and over on the Live Register rose by 10,496 or 3 per cent in the year to April. The number of people aged under 25 fell by 3,582 or 4.3 per cent.

According to the figures 61.5 per cent of those on the Live Register were short-term claimants, compared to 72.9 per cent a year earlier. During the same period there was a 44 per cent rise in the number of long-term claimants.

Employers’ lobby group Ibec welcomed the fall in the number of claimants but said the fact that nearly 440,000 remained on the Live Register highlighted the importance of the Government’s jobs initiative, details of which are to be announced next Tuesday.

Small business industry group Isme described the unemployment situation as “frighteningly bleak”.