New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the total number of people on the Live Register or receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment decreased by 9.4% to 239,390 over the month to October.
The CSO said the unadjusted Live Register total stood at 165,671 in October.
In the last week of October, the CSO said that 77,806 people were in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP), down 23,663 from the previous month and 267,899 from a year ago.
It noted that of the 77,806 people in receipt of the PUP, 55.8% were men and around a quarter were in each of the 25-34-year-old (21.6%), 35-44-year-old (25.9%) and 45-54-year-old (22.8%) age groups.
The PUP closed to new entrants in July.
The CSO also said that of the 318,129 people estimated to have been directly supported by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) in September 2021, 47.7% were men and 52.3% were women.
Taken together, there were 571,603 people on the Live Register, PUP and EWSS combined in September. This compared to 804,092 in October last year.
Figures earlier this week from the Central Statistics Office showed that unemployment fell to 7.9% last month, including those in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.
This compares to the Covid-adjusted rate of 8.9% in September and 20.3% in October 2020.
The traditional, seasonally adjusted rate of unemployment, stood at 135,200 people or 5.2% of the workforce in October.
This is unchanged from September and down 18,400 from the 6.3% recorded in October last year.
