The seasonally adjusted live register, which measures the number of people receiving the jobseekers benefit and allowance payments, rose by 5,000 people to 169,700 in November, the biggest rise in 6 years.
The live register has been rising steadily this year and is now almost 13,000 higher than January this year.
Although the register is not designed to measure unemployment, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said based on its figures released today the unemployment rate in November was 4.6 per cent.
This compares with 4.4 per cent in the latest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from the CSO's Quarterly National Household Survey.
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The November increase in the register consisted of a rise of 4,000 males and an increase of 1,000 females