The seasonally adjusted Live Register total dropped from 159,000 in March to 154,200 in April, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show.
This compares with an increase of 3,100 in March and the CSO says that the timing of Easter this year has had an influence on these contrasting trends.
Overall, between February and April the seasonally adjusted Live Register figures fell by 1,700. The CSO said the unemployment rate in April was 4.2%, down from 4.3% in March.
In the year to April 2005, there was an unadjusted decrease of 13,041 (down 7.9%) of the numbers of people signing on the Live Register. This compares with an unadjusted decrease of 11,205 (down 6.6%) in the year to March 2005.
The CSO figures show that there was a 3.8% unadjusted monthly decrease of 3.8% on the Live Register, which reflected decreases in all of the country's regions. The biggest falls were seen in the south-west (down 5.7%) and south-east regions (down 5.2%).
Among counties, the largest percentage decreases were in Kerry (down 9%) and Carlow (down 8.4%). However, there was a 0.4% increase in the Live Register figures in Leitrim.
