Live Register figures show slight decrease in December

There was a drop of more than 34,000 in the number of people on the Live Register between December 2014 and last month, according to the Central Statistics Office.

Figures from the CSO show there were 321,616 people signing on in December 2015, a decrease of 9.7% on December 2014.

Seasonally adjusted Live Register figures show a monthly decrease of 1,800, down 0.5% on November.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for December 2015 was 8.8%.

The number of people who are long-term unemployed on the Live Register last month was 146,174, a fall of 11.3% from the same month in 2014.