The numbers of people signing on the live register has fallen by 5,100 to a 17-year low of 186,600, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office.

The unemployment rate now stands at 6.2 per cent, a decline of 0.2 of a percentage point on the August rate.

This is not a true measure of unemployment, however, as some part-time and casual workers are listed on the register.

The CSO regards the data from the Quarterly National Household Budget surveys, the next edition of which is due later this month, as a more accurate measure.

Normally there is a dip in numbers on the live register in Septem ber due to temporary workers, such as teacher, caretakers and cleaners, returning to work. But the seasonally adjusted fall in the register reflects continuing buoyant economic conditions and labour shortages.

"This year, the fact it is down by 5,000 after you adjust for seasonal factors does mean it is a relatively deep fall," said Mr Joe Treacy, a statistician with the CSO.

Of the net decrease in 12,492 signing off, 7,659 or 61 per cent were women, and 4,833 were men, reflecting large numbers of female temporary workers returning to work after the summer.

So far this year, 32,996 people have signed off the register, a drop of 15 per cent.

The last time the numbers on the live register were fewer than the current 186,178 was in December, 1982, when just 179,867 were signing on. The numbers on the live register peaked in January 1993, at 302,178. In no month before or since has the 300,000 threshold been breached.

The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed stated that, despite the drop in the numbers, the Government Employment Action Plan was not delivering results for young unemployed people. Ms Carole Sullivan, the INOU labour market co-ordinator, said 7,600 under-25s signed off this year compared to 8,100 last year, before the plan's introduction.

"Now that we have a projected Budget surplus of £6 billion (€7.6 billion), the Government must come up with radical strategies to repay the communities who have suffered the most," she said. The Labour Party spokesman on social, community and family affairs, Mr Tommy Broughan, said the Economic and Social Research Institute had stressed the growing disparity between social welfare incomes and incomes gained through paid employment. "The failure of this Government, so far, to invest in the welfare system is no longer excusable."