New figures show the unemployment rate is at 14% which is unchanged since March of last year. That is also down from 14.9% on a year ago.
Seasonally adjusted figures show there are now 426,900 people out of work.
The number of men out of work has fallen by over 12,000 or 4% over the last year, while there has been little change in the numbers of women claiming unemployment benefit.
In unadjusted terms there were 417,593 people signing on the Live Register in April. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) says this represents an annual decrease of 12,408 or 2.9%.
Other features include:
- On a seasonally adjusted basis the Live Register showed a monthly decrease of 200 males in April 2013, while females saw no change
- The number of male claimants decreased by 12,391 (4.5%) to 265,017 over the year while female claimants showed little change decreasing by 17 to 152,576.
Meanwhile the number of long-term claimants in April 2013 stood at 186,063. This was an overall annual rise of 2,010 in long-term claimants.
Speaking at a JobBridge event, the Social Protection Minister Joan Burton says the actual number of unemployed is actually lower.
