The number of jobless claimants fell in January according to official figures that indicate unemployment has fallen to 4.2 per cent.
The seasonally adjusted Live Register shows 159,300 people claimed unemployment benefit of some kind in January, a fall of 2,100 on the figure recorded in December.
On year-on-year basis the Live Register total dropped by 8 per cent, the biggest annual fall since July 2001 in percentage terms.
The Live Register is not designed to measure unemployment. It includes part-time workers who work up to three days a week and casual workers entitled to unemployment assistance.
The standardised unemployment rate in January was 4.2 per cent. This compares with 4.4 per cent in July 2004, based on the Quarterly National Household Survey.