The number of people on the Live Register fell by 2,500 last month when seasonally adjusted putting the unemployment rate at a 3-year low of 13.6%.

That means almost 423,000 people are now signing on. The number of long-term claimants last month was almost 198,000.

Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that in unadjusted terms, there were 435,357 people signing on in June which is an annual decrease of 16,617.

This means the standardised unemployment rate last month was 13.6%, down from 13.7% in May. The Live Register showed a monthly drop of 2,800 males in June, while females increased by 300.

In June just over 54 of all claimants were short-term, while the figure for June 2012 was 55.9%.

There were 88,322 casual and part-time workers on the Register in June, which represents just over 20 of the total. This compares with 19.6% a year earlier when there were 88,465 casual and part-time workers.

Meanwhile the number of persons aged 25 and over on the Live Register decreased by 8,828, and the number of people aged under-25 also fell by 7,789 in the year to June.