Irish jobless decline stalls in April

Unemployment is still expected to fall below 10% this quarter, despite fresh data showing no change in April — only the third time in two years that the jobless rate hasn’t declined on a month-to-month basis.

Yesterday’s latest Live Register figures from the CSO showed that on a seasonally adjusted basis 1,800 more people came off the register, reducing the total to 349,500. The standardised unemployment rate in April was 10%; unchanged from March.

Conall MacCoille, chief economist with Davy Stockbrokers, called the figures slightly disappointing and unexpected.