The seasonally adjusted Live Register total for March 2024 was 174,500 people, down by 400 people or 0.2% from February 2024.
The unadjusted Live Register total stood at 173,396 people for March 2024.
Of the 173,396 people on the unadjusted Live Register in March 2024, 54.6% were male and 68.9% were Irish.
The 35-44 age group made up the largest number of those on the Live Register in March 2024 at 40,797 people or 23.5% of the total.
The counties that saw the largest increase in the number of people on the Live Register in the 12 months to March 2024 were Meath (10.6%) and Laois (4.7%).
In March 2024 there were 111,463 people on the Live Register for less than one year, which was 6,122 fewer people than March 2023.
People arriving in Ireland from Ukraine under the EU's Temporary Protection Directive (TPD) can access a wide range of Department of Social Protection (DSP) supports. The majority of new applications for income support from people of working age are being processed as Jobseeker's Allowance (JA) claims until the most appropriate income support for that person is identified. This facilitates access to existing part-time work supports where appropriate. If a person is on JA for 20* claim paid days or more, they are counted on the Live Register.
*Before October 2022, persons availing of TPD were included in the Live Register when they had been in receipt of JA for 50 days or more.
Data in this release are subject to revision based on updates to the seasonally adjusted series whenever new monthly data are added, such revisions are typically very minor in scale. It should be noted that larger revisions can occur when the comprehensive annual review of the seasonal adjustment model is carried out in January of each year. See background notes for further details.
| Total Persons on the Live Register - Unadjusted and Seasonally Adjusted | ||
| Live Register Total | Seasonally Adjusted | |
| March 2023 | 179,303 | 182,000 |
| February 2024 | 173,982 | 174,900 |
| March 2024 | 173,396 | 174,500 |
| Change in month | - | -400 |
| Change in year | -5,907 | - |
The number of Jobseekers Benefit claims increased by 12.7% (+4,551) in March 2024 compared with 12 months earlier.
The time reference for activation programs in the heading below was corrected, from February 2023 to February 2024, on 01 May 2024.
Data up to the end of February 2024 on the number of persons availing of a range of programmes targeted primarily at the long-term unemployed (over 12 months) and other welfare recipients is provided in the Annex Table A1 – Number of persons availing of Activation Programmes table.
Persons on activation programmes are not counted as part of the monthly Live Register.
Detailed tables relating to the monthly estimates of the number of persons on Live Register classified by NUTS2 and NUTS3 regions are included in the CSO Main Data Dissemination Service LRM17 on PxStat.
Table LRM13 on PxStat includes the Live Register occupational data which is sourced from information collected by the DSP on the most recent occupation of claimants when they sign on the Live Register.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (08 April 2024) issued results from the Live Register for March 2024.
Commenting on today’s publication, Conor Delves, Statistician in the Labour Market Analysis Section, said:
“The unadjusted Live Register total for March 2024 was 173,396. When seasonal effects are considered, the seasonally adjusted Live Register total for March 2024 was 174,500 or 400 fewer people than March 2023.
There were 21,237 people benefitting from the EU's Temporary Protection Directive included in the Live Register figures for March 2024, a decrease of 757 people from February 2024.
The largest percentage increases in the number of people on the Live Register in the 12 months to March 2024 were recorded in Meath (10.6%) and Laois (4.7%)- (See PxStat Table LRM15).
The number of people on the Live Register for one year or more in March 2024 was 61,933, which was 215 more people (0.3%) than a year earlier. There were 111,463 people on the Live Register for less than one year, which represents just under two-thirds of the total number on the Live Register.”