Figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the number of people on the Live Register fell in April, the second fall in three months.
When the figures were adjusted to take seasonal factors into account, there was a monthly drop of 500 to 432,500. This is still more than 50,000 more than in April last year.
The unadjusted figure showed that there were 432,657 people signing on last month, down 2,464 from March. This figure was 50,781, or just over 13%, higher than in April last year.
The latest numbers are a further sign that the jobless figures are stabilising. The CSO said the unemployment rate in April was 13.4%, unchanged from March.
Separate figures from the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Innovation have also shown falls in the number of redundancies notified to the department.
There were 5,749 lay-offs in April, down 19.4% from the same month last year. For the first four months of the year, the figure was 23,593, a drop of 14.6% fro a year earlier.
