THE NUMBER OF people on the Live Register jumped by almost 3,000 people in May but the unemployment rate remained at 14.3 per cent.

New figures released by the Central Statistics Office show 432,907 people signing on this month, reflecting a rise of 2,906. However, the CSO said that allowing for seasonal adjustments, the actual increase was just 200, meaning the overall figure of 436,700 is “effectively unchanged”.

On an unadjusted basis, there was an annual decrease of 8,040 on the Live Register. The CSO said the trend continues to be one of movement within a small range.

Over the past month, the Live Register showed a monthly decrease of 200 men but an increase of 400 women.

The standardised unemployment rate was unchanged from last month at 14.3 per cent.

For the 23rd consecutive month, the number of people younger than 25 on the Live Register decreased. The percentage of under-25s now stands at 16.8 per cent, down from 18.4 per cent this time last year, and 19.6 per cent in May 2010.

The number of long-term claimants – those who have been signing on for over 12 months – has hit 188,729, a jump of 7 per cent.

The Live Register is not intended as a measure of unemployment: of the 430,001 signing on, 88,064 are working in casual or part-time work. This figure has increased by about 1 per cent in the year. The latest estimated number of people completely out of work is 302,000.