Live Register hits 12-year low as labour market expands

The number of people signing on the Live Register has fallen again, with an additional 1,300 coming off the register in January.

This reduced the seasonally adjusted total to 183,900, the lowest level since January 2008.

In unadjusted terms, there was an annual decrease of 15,872 (8 per cent). The Live Register, collated by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), is not a measure of unemployment, as people with part-time work can be entitled to benefits.

Separate monthly unemployment statistics published this week put the State’s headline rate at 4.8 per cent in January.

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The latest Live Register shows the number of males signing on fell by 900 (0.8 per cent) in January while females decreased by 400 (0.5 per cent).

The Live Register total has fallen in tandem with the growth in employment.

Jobs surge

Since 2014, the Irish economy has grown by more than 50 per cent, largely as a result of a spike in investment and employment in the private sector. The surge has created more than 400,000 jobs.

The CSO’s latest Labour Force Survey shows employment in the Irish economy surpassed 2.3 million for the first time in the third quarter of last year.

This is about 80,000 higher than the boom-time high of 2.23 million recorded in the fourth quarter of 2007 and reflects the current strength of the economy.

However, the State has a bigger population now and a larger workforce than in 2007 and therefore the employment rate – the proportion of adults with jobs – is still below the pre-crash level.