Seasonally adjusted figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the number of people on the Live Register fell slightly last month.
The January total was 156,300, down 400 from December. The figure has been little changed in recent months.
The headline figure showed an increase of 3,363 to 158,752, but is still almost 1,400 lower than in January last year. The unemployment rate remains at 4.5%%.
There were monthly unadjusted increases in all regions in January, with the largest percentage rise of 3% in the Border region.
