The live register hit 225,662 in May while the seasonally adjusted live register rose by 8,900 to 226,400 in the month, according to data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The data also shows that, in the last week of May, 543,164 people were in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment while 436,344 people benefitted from the temporary Covid-19 wage subsidy scheme.
Neither of those emergency payments are captured in the traditional methodology of the live register which records the number of claimants for jobseekers benefit or jobseekers assistance.
The unadjusted live register total stood at 225,662 in May, up by more than 10,000 from April and considerably higher than the 189,867 recorded in May 2019.
Of the unadjusted live register, 55.4 per cent of people were male while 13.1 per cent were younger than 25.
In relation to those on the pandemic unemployment payment, 54.6 per cent were male while 21.2 per cent were under the age of 25. The temporary wage subsidy scheme, which has been extended to the end of August, was again weighted towards men, who accounted for 60 per cent, while just 12.6 per cent of the beneficiaries were under the age of 25.
