Jobless figures fall by more than 4,200

THE number of people claiming unemployment benefits fell by more than 4,200 last month, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

But the numbers on the Live Register saw a slight increase of 300, when seasonal factors are included.

The CSO said the standardised unemployment rate went up to 4.6% last month, from 4.5% in February. Almost 169,000 people were on the Live Register in March, with part-time and casual workers making up 23,000 of the total. The year-on-year increase in Live Register numbers was 0.5%.

Friends First economist Jim Power said the new data suggested the Irish labour market situation remained positive and stable. "This performance has to be viewed as very positive given the tricky global economic background over the past couple of years," he said.

Mr Power added that, taken with other statistics released in the past week, the omens for the Irish labour market were more positive than for some time.

But he cautioned that Irish workers and businesses should not become complacent about competitiveness. He joined recent calls from employers' group IBEC and government think-tank the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) for wage restraint in the upcoming partnership talks between the government, employers and trade unions.

"The bottom line is that if the economy is to continue creating jobs, the wage deal that emanates from the current round of social partnership talks cannot deliver wage growth of more than 2% over the next 12 months, and not more than 3% over the next 18 months," said Mr Power.

He said the talks were the most important faced by the social partners for more than 10 years. "We cannot afford to make a mistake," he said.

The CSO figures showed a decline in people on the Live register throughout all regions of the country. The South-West region, which includes Cork and Kerry, recorded the best performance with a drop of 4.2% in people claiming unemployment benefits. This compared with a national average decline of 2.5%. The smallest decline was recorded in the Border region, saw a fall of 1.3%.