New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the numbers signing on the Live Register in June fell by 2,500 on a seasonally adjusted basis, to stand at 422,900.
The CSO said that the standardised unemployment rate stood at 13.6% in June, a new three-year low and down from a rate of 13.7% in May.
The figures show that on a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of men signing on fell by 2,800 in June but the number of women rose by 300.
The number of male claimants fell by 5.5% over the year while the number of female claimants showed little change, falling by just 0.5%.
Breaking down the figures, they show that the number of male long term claimants on the Live Register last month fell by 3% on an annual basis, while females rose by 4.4%.
The number of people aged 25 and over signing on fell by 2.4% in the year to June, while the number of people aged under 25 fell by almost 10%. The CSO noted that the youth unemployment has fallen every month since July 2010, which is likely due to increased levels of emigration.
The percentage of youth unemployment now stands at 16.4% for June of this year, down from 17.5% in June 2012 and 19% in June 2011.
Reacting to the CSO figures, ISME has called on the Government to put much more effort into their jobs initiative, now that the EU presidency has been passed on.
ISME said the Government must immediately focus on cost competitiveness, increase job-rich infrastructure investment and tackle the social welfare system to make it worthwhile to work and come off the dole.
It also urged the Government to address the ''scourge of ever-increasing black economy activity'', while it also wants the lack of bank credit for productive SMEs to be corrected.
"The perception among the business community is that this Government is striving to remain 'popular' rather than making the real and hard decisions which will bring about a sustainable recovery in the longer term,'' commented ISME's chief executive Mark Fielding.
Commenting on the figures, Merrion economist Alan McQuaid said that increased emigration and people staying on longer in education are clearly factors that have contributed to the drop. But he said that employment conditions generally have improved in the past few months.
''With the big drop in the numbers signing on, the unemployment rate fell to 13.6%, having been stuck at 13.7% since February. Having peaked at 15.1% in February 2012, it has since then started to decline gradually, a sign that the market has stabilised, though it still remains a lot higher than desirable,'' he added.
