THE number of people out of work is expected to fall again when the Government announces live register figures today.

Just under 2,000 people are expected to have signed off the live register in March after a fall of 2,900 in February.

However, the seasonally adjusted figure is likely to be around 1,000 higher.

This will be the eighth successive monthly drop in unemployment and could bring the total number out or work to below 258,000.

The downward trend is likely to continue with new jobs expected to come on stream regularly over the coming months.

The Exchequer returns last week underlined the growing number of jobs in the economy. Income tax was up IS per cent against a Budget forecast of 8 per cent. While some of this increase may be due to increasing pay levels, it is likely that a good proportion is the direct result of rising numbers of new jobs.

New jobs are still coming in large numbers. Over the last week one of Holland's leading software companies, Dedicate Information Technology, has set up a new software development centre in Dublin. The company is expecting to employ over 50 more workers to add to the 18 its has already taken on.

Another 100 jobs are expected at Kao Information Systems which programmes CD ROMs. This has not yet gone to Cabinet so the annoucement could be a few weeks off.

It was also announced last week that almost 1,250 jobs will be created in 17 IDA backed projects.

The biggest single project was the announcement that a further 240 jobs are being created at Berlitz, the language specialist company in Blackrock, Co Dublin.

The Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation will be creating 140 new jobs, while CSK Software will produce an extra 94 jobs in expanding its software development operation.