Number of people on Live Register falls marginally amid record low unemployment

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.

The Live Register is used to track the number of people registering for Jobseeker's Benefit, Jobseeker's Allowance or other entitlements at local offices of the Department of Social Protection.

While it is an imperfect measure of unemployment as people with part-time work can be entitled to benefits, the Live Register 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.

Last week the Central Statistics Office confirmed that the State's unemployment rate has fallen to match the previous record low of the early 2000s.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April 2023 was down to 3.9 per cent. Unemployment was last at 3.9 per cent between October 2000 and April 2001.