The number of claimants on the Live Register fell by 0.4 per cent or 600 in January to165,400, reflecting the ongoing strength of the Irish labour market.
The register tracks labour market trends but is an imperfect measure of unemployment as people with part-time or casual work may still be entitled to benefits.
The latest readout from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) comes in the wake of unemployment data which put the State’s headline jobless rate at 4 per cent in January, close to a historic low.
The CSO said the unadjusted Live Register total stood at 165,235 people for January, of which 56 per cent were male and 71.5 per cent were Irish.
The 25-34 age group made up the largest component at 38,858 people or 23.5 per cent.
Kildare was the only county that recorded an increase in the number of people in the 12 months to January 2025, up 111 people (1.8 per cent).
The figures show there were 108,373 people on the Live Register for less than one year, which was 6,380 fewer people than in the same month last year.
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