The number of claimants on the Live Register has fallen to an eight-year low as conditions in the labour market continue to improve.

Figures from Central Statistics Office (CSO) show the number of people signing on the Live Register fell by 3,100 last month to stand at 288,000.

This was the lowest number recorded in the seasonally adjusted series since November 2008.

The Live Register is not a measure of unemployment as claimants can work part time. Separate CSO figures, published this week, put the State’s headline rate of unemployment at a post-crash low of 7.7 per cent.

In unadjusted terms, the numbers on the Live Register in October stood at 277,219, which corresponded to an annual decrease of 43,575 or 13.6 per cent.

The figures show that the number of men signing on last month fell by 1,700 (1 per cent) while the number of women on the register dropped by 1,300 (1.1 per cent).

They also reveal that the number of long term claimants fell by 24,540 or 16.4 per cent on an annual basis to stand at a total of 125,063.

The CSO noted that the number of people on various job-activation programmes stood at 60,012 as of September, a decrease of 8,998 (12.1 per cent) from the previous year.

People on activation programmes are not included in the overall Live Register numbers.