The Taoiseach has described as "heartening" another drop in the numbers on the dole.

The CSO's figures show unemployment fell to 10.7 per cent last month, with over 4,000 people coming off the Live Register. 144,645 people left the live register to take up jobs in the past twelve months.

More than 350,000 people were still on the Live Register last month, however that is a drop of 10% on a year ago.

Enda Kenny says the challenge remains to get more people back to work and the figure remains “too high”.

“There are still too many people who are out of work, still too many people who don’t feel the benefit in their personal or daily lives or their pockets,” Mr Kenny said. “Because they know the macro figures are heading in the right direction but we still have work to do.”

There has been a drop of more than 11 per cent in the number of men on the live register for more than a year.

Chief Economist with KBC Bank Austin Hughes says the number of people out of work is still too high:

“We’re seeing an improvement in sectors like construction and retailing and that means that people are coming off the long term unemployed,” he said. “The reality is that a 10.7% unemployment rate is still fairly high and consequently we still have some way to go before we return to what we might call ‘full employment’ but it is moving in the right direction.”

The Department of Jobs reported that from an economic point of view, every person who leaves the Live Register into employment saves the Exchequer approximately €20,000 per annum in reduced social welfare expenditure and increased tax revenue

Tánaiste Joan Burton says the figures are good news for everybody: