Seasonally adjusted figures show that the number of people on the Live Register fell by 2,300 to 432,400 in February, down from 434,700 the previous month, according to the CSO.
On an annual basis, there were 84,300 more people on the Live Register in February 2010 compared to February 2009, an increase of 24 per cent.
However, this compares with an increase of 110,664 - or 33.9 per cent - in the year to January 2010, suggesting that the rapid increase in the numbers of people joining the Live Register in the last year may be stabilising.
The fall of 2,300 in the month means that there was an average net weekly decrease of 575 in February – this compares with a weekly average increase in February 2009 which saw 6,000 people per week joining the Live Register.
On an unadjusted basis, the numbers on the Live Register reached a record high of 436,956 last month.
The standardised unemployment rate in February was 12.6 per cent, down from 12.7 per cent in January.
The Live Register is not designed to measure unemployment. It includes part-time workers (those who work up to three days a week), seasonal and casual workers entitled to Jobseekers Benefit or Allowance.
Speaking in the Dáil today, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said: "These figures confirm that the situation is stabilising."
However, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny told him the numbers pointed to an "appalling failure of your leadership and your Government".
"People out on the streets are suffering an enraged silence," he added.
The Labour Party’s spokesman on Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Willie Penrose, said the Government's claims that unemployment figures are levelling off will be cold comfort to the record 436,956 people on the Live Register.
“What is particularly disturbing is the fact that so many young people are out of work, with one third of the labour force, between the age of 20 and 24, now unemployed” he said.
Dermot O’ Leary of Goodbody Stockbrokers said that the fall of 2,300 indicated that January’s increase of 5,300 was likely due to post-Christmas layoffs, a theme that was also evident in 2009.
Separately, Mark Fielding, chief executive of ISME, said that the reduction in the Live Register figures was a consequence of increased emigration and more individuals participating in state schemes and could not be seen as a reduction in job losses.
Meanwhile, the assistant director of the Small Firms' Association, Avine McNally, said today’s figures are “worrying” and the 24 per cent increase in the last 12 months is “a damning indictment of the absence of Government policy in this area.”
Ms McNally said businesses’ ability to create new jobs has been severely damaged by a loss of competitiveness in recent years.
“Whilst small Irish businesses have taken a series of actions to regain costs within their own businesses, many costs remain which are outside their control as they are Government controlled.”
The SFA called for the Government to reduce energy costs, instruct local authorities to decrease commercial rates and to postpone the introduction of a carbon tax. “In the absence of reductions in these costs, small businesses will have no option but to further reduce the costs that are within their control, and this will inevitably mean a further loss of jobs.”
