Live Register figure lowest since late 2008
Sharp drop in number signing on in September, says CSO
Official figures show that the number of people signing on fell last month to its lowest level since December 2008.
The Central Statistics Office said the Live Register figure fell by 7,700 from August to stand at 290,600. This was the biggest monthly drop since the Live Register figure started falling after the financial crisis.
The unadjusted figures showed that there were 286,490 people signing on in September, an annual decrease of 46,311 or 13.9 per cent.
The CSO said the number of men on the Live Register fell by 4,100 during September, while the number of women dropped by 3,500.
130,772 of those on the Live Register were long-term –signing on for more than one year– down 16.6 per cent over the past 12 months. Long-term claimants now account for 47.1 per cent of the Live Register total.
The CSO says youth unemployment also continued to fall, down 23.5 per cent over the past 12 months. The percentage of people on the Live Register aged under 25 now stands at 12.1 per cent, down from 13.6 per cent in September last year.
There were 58,860 people on a range ofprogrammes targeted at the long-term unemployed in August, a decrease of 10.3 per cent from the previous year. People on these programmes are not counted as part of the monthly Live Register.
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