Official figures show that the number of people on the Live Register fell by 1,800 to 438,300 in February, the third monthly fall in a row.
But the Central Statistics Office said the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 14.2%.
The number on the dole in February, when adjusted for seasonal factors, was the lowest since April 2010.
Men accounted for 1,100 of February's drop, and the number of women on the Live Register fell by 600.
The headline Live Register figure - which does not take seasonal factors into account - was flat at 439,422. This figure is down 1.1% compared with February last year.
The Live Register includes some part time and seasonal workers and does not measure unemployment.
Almost 42% of claimants on the Live Register have been there for a year or more. The number of long-term claimants in February was up 706 to 184,555.
The CSO has noted a downward trend in the number of people under 25 signing on. This figure has fallen by 8.7% in the past 12 months.
There were 36,102 new claims in February, down from 42,029 in January. 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.
