Two hundred people came off the live register in February to bring the total number down to 170,700, data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.
The latest figures from the CSO broadly reflect the low unemployment rate detailed in separate CSO data, published on Wednesday, which put the headline jobless rate at 4.6 per cent.
While the register is not an accurate barometer of unemployment as people with part-time work can be entitled to benefits, it does track trends in the labour market.
The unadjusted live register total stood at 169,507 people for February, of which 56.6 per cent were men and 71.1 per cent were Irish. This is an increase of 4,200 people or 2.5 per cent when compared with February last year.
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The 25-34-year-old age group made up the largest number of those on the live register in February at 40,351 people, or 23.8 per cent of the total.
The counties that recorded the largest percentage increases in the number of people on the register in the 12 months to February were Dublin (8.9 per cent) and Wicklow (6.1 per cent), while the largest decreases were in Monaghan (8.3 per cent) and Laois (4.7 per cent).
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There were 116,328 people on the live register for less than one year, which was 7,682 more people (up 7.1 per cent) than in February 2025.
Speaking earlier this week, Jack Kennedy, senior economist at hiring platform Indeed, said the unemployment rate “highlights the ongoing robust strength of the Irish economy and the resilience of the labour market”.
He said the numbers were achieved “despite a sustained but now stabilising softening in the level of jobs on offer”.
“The latest CSO Labour Force Survey for the last quarter of 2025 showed there are now more than 2.83 million people at work in Ireland – the highest amount ever recorded in the State,” he said.
“This means that around 450,000 more people are now in employment than just before the pandemic, with around 57,000 of these jobs added in the past 12 months.”
The unemployment rate has now also averaged below 5 per cent for 16 consecutive quarters.
