About 1,600 people came off the Live Register in March, bringing the number in receipt of State job supports down to 180,500 on a seasonally-adjusted basis.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that the Live Register fell 0.9 per cent last month compared to February, pointing to an ongoing labour market squeeze.
Although the Live Register is not a measure of unemployment as people with part-time work can be entitled to benefits, it does broadly track changes in the labour market.
The counties that saw the largest percentage increase in the number of people on the register in the 12 months to March were Kerry (29.4 per cent) and Leitrim (27.2 per cent). Dublin, Kildare and Meath saw the biggest falls.
The number of people on the Live Register for one year or more was 61,827, down 6,885 from a year earlier. There were 117,950 people (65.6 per cent) on the register for less than one year.
Of those on the register, 23,295 people were displaced by the war in Ukraine and benefiting from the EU’s temporary protection directive included in the figures, which was an increase of 119 from February.
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The number of people under the age of 25 on the register was down on February but eight per cent up on the same month last year at 18,810.
The unadjusted Live Register total stood at 179,777 people for March 2023. Of those, 53.8 per cent were men and 69.2 per cent were Irish. The 35-44 age group made up the largest number of those on the Live Register in March at 42,885 people or 23.9 per cent.
