Figures released by the Central Statistics Office have this morning revealed that the amount of people signing on the Live Register has reached a nine-year low.
The number of persons on the Live Register in October 2017 is the lowest number recorded in the seasonally adjusted series since September 2008.
During October 2017, the Live Register total recorded a monthly decrease of 2,400 – reducing the amount of people signing on to 246,900 (seasonally adjusted).
In unadjusted terms there were 236,492 persons signing on the Live Register in October 2017. This represents an annual decrease of 40,317 (-14.6%).
It should be noted that the Live Register is not designed to measure unemployment. It includes part-time workers (those who work up to three days a week), seasonal and casual workers entitled to Jobseeker’s Benefit (JB) or Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA).
The figures show a monthly decrease of 1,400 (-1.0%) males signing on in October 2017, while females decreased by 1,000 (-0.9%) over the same period.
The number of long-term claimants on the Live Register in October 2017 was 101,590. The number of male long term claimants decreased by 15,681 (-20.4%) in the year to October 2017, while females decreased by 7,545 (-15.8%), giving an overall annual decrease of 23,226 (-18.6%) in the number of long term claimants.
In October 2017, 57.0% (134,902) of all claimants on the Live Register were short-term claimants.
There were 51,290 casual and part-time workers on the Live Register in October 2017, which represents 21.7% of the total Live Register.
On Wednesday the CSO revealed that the rate of unemployment has hit 6%, a figure which has not been seen since June 2008 – having previously been as high as 15.2% at the height of the recession in January 2012.
These figures show that Ireland’s rate of unemployment is well below the Euro zone average of 8.9%.
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