Live Register at lowest level since April 2009

The number of people signing onto the Live Register declined by 4,400 in June 2014, representing an annual decrease of 8.4 per cent, or 36,544 people. This is the 24th consecutive month that Live Register figures have declined, and is the lowest total since April 2009.

As a result, the seasonally adjusted register, which includes casual and part-time workers as well as those on Jobseeker’s Allowance, stood at 386,200 in June. This correlates to an unemployment rate of 11.6 per cent, down from 11.7 per cent in May 2014.

According to the Central Statistics Office, the Live Register for June showed a monthly decrease of 3,100 males, while females decreased by 1,300 over the same period.

Long term claimants amounted to 188,858, with the number of male long term claimants decreasing by 10,516 (-7.7%) in the year to June 2014, while females increased by 1,866 (+3.1%), giving an overall annual decrease of 8,650 (-4.4%) in the number of long term claimants.

Short term claimants accounted for 52.6 per cent (209,955) of all claimants on the Live Register, down from 54.6 per cent in June 2013.

Casual and part-time workers accounted for 19.2 per cent (76,561) of the total Live Register, down from 20.3 per cent one year earlier when there were 88,322.

Alan McQuaid, economist with Merrion Stockbrokers, said that the figures show that “steady progress is being made in terms of bringing it (unemployment) down”.

“We think that the level of unemployment will continue to fall over the course of 2014. We are looking for the jobless rate to fall back to 11.6 per cent on average this year from 13.1 per cent in 2013,” he said.