UNEMPLOYMENT fell by another 3,600 in January, the seventh successive monthly decline, the Central Statistics Office said last night. Opposition politicians welcomed the latest figures, but stressed that the jobless total, at 262,400, remained unacceptably high.

The seasonally adjusted total for the live register, measured at the end of each month, shows unemployment at a high last July of 285 300 Yesterday's figure shows a drop of 22,900 since that date, leaving the total at its lowest level for five years. Over the past year the figure has declined by 19,107, from 287 997 to 268,890.

The number of jobless people under 25 has been falling at a proportionately more rapid rate. According to the CSO, youth unemployment, seasonally adjusted, is now at 62,600, down from a high of 73,100 last June. Unadjusted year on year, the number fell by 10,174, from 74,925 to 64,751.

The fall may not be merely due to increase in employment in a strong economy. The sharp downward turn of recent months coincides with a much publicised Government clampdown on social welfare fraud. But some analysts pointed to the unseasonally mild weather, suggesting that the building trade may have got off to an early start this year.

The Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, said the latest figures were in part due to the development of incentives for people to take up work. "The very successful job creation record of the Government and the effectiveness of the new measures introduced to ensure that only those who are entitled to payments get them," had also assisted he added.

The Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Bruton, said the trends in the figures were further concrete evidence of employment growth. He said further evidence was the fall in redundancies, with 13,008 notified in 1996, the lowest level since 1980.

Fianna Fail said the drop was welcome, but the number of people signing on needed to be falling at a more rapid rate if the unemployment crisis was to be tackled.

The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed echoed this message, contrasting the Republic's strong economic growth with its EU ranking of fourth highest in the unemployment table.

The Progressive Democrats pointed to the gap of 90,000 between the live register and the labour force survey and suggested that the State might be "paying hundreds of millions of pounds each year to people who are not really unemployed at all".