There has been a drop of 4,800 of people signing on the Live Register.

The 1.5% fall brings the seasonally adjusted total of those signing on to 323,200, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Fig 1: Seasonally adjusted Live Register figures from the CSO

The number of men signing on in January was down 1.8%, while the number of women was down 0.9%.

The Live Register is not described as a tool to measure unemployment because it includes part-time workers, seasonal and casual workers entitled to Jobseeker's Benefit or Jobseeker's allowance.

On Tuesday the CSO published unemployment figures, which are separate to the live register, showing a fall in the number of those out of work - with the unemployment rate at 8.6%.