The number of people on the Live Register increased in March, having fallen for the previous two months, according to seasonally adjusted figures from the Central Statistics Office.
The total now stands at 442,000, up 1,100 from February, but the CSO said this was 6,800 below the peak recorded in September last year. The CSO said the unemployment rate in March was 14.7%, unchanged from February.
Earlier this month, the CSO sharply raised its estimate of the unemployment rate after its quarterly national household survey.
The headline Live Register figure for March, which does not take account of seasonal changes, fell by 3,106 to 441,193.
The Live Register includes some part-time and seasonal workers and does not measure unemployment.
The CSO also said that there were 34,486 new claimants on the Live Register in March, down from 46,115 in February. This figure is not the same as the monthly change in the Live Register, which is affected by people closing claims and moving between different schemes.
The number of people signing on for more than a year, however, rose by more than 2,802 last month. The number of long-term claimants has risen by almost 50% over the past 12 months. Long-term claimants now make up almost 38% of the total number of people on the Live Register.
The number of Irish nationals on the Live Register has increased by 7,519 over the past 12 months, but the number of non-Irish people signing on has fallen by more than 1,447.
