Live Register total falls again as labour market continues to tighten

Another 800 people came off the Live Register last month, suggesting the Republic’s labour market continues to tighten despite the wider economic slowdown.

Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show the seasonally adjusted Live Register total for October fell by 0.4 per cent to 182,600.

The number of people receiving benefits has fallen sharply since the removal of Covid-19 restrictions and the ending of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) in March this year.

In March, 436,056 people were on the Live Register or were benefiting from the PUP or the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme. This was down from a pandemic high of just under 1.2 million in April 2020.

The Pillowman review: Martin McDonagh’s early play gets a pin-sharp, meticulously controlled staging from Lyric and Prime Cut

---

Election campaigns well under way as Ming pips the first televised debate

---

‘It’s nice to have Europe on your doorstep but rent is absolutely ridiculous here’

---

A Wee Poem

---

The Live Register is not a measure of unemployment, as people with part-time work can be entitled to benefits, but it does broadly track improvements in the labour market.