Jobless figures fall by nearly 9%

THE number of people claiming unemployment assistance or benefit dropped by almost 9% last month as job creation rates continued to outpace redundancies.

Even when adjusted for seasonal factors, such as students leaving the summer labour market to return to college, the latest live register figures still show a decrease of 1.7%.

The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU) welcomed the reductions but warned against complacency.