The number on the live register last month stood at 177,969, according to new CSO figures.

The seasonally-adjusted total for April was 181,800, a decrease of 3,500 from March 2021.

Outside of the traditional live register, in the last week of April, 385,211 people were in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP).

There are currently 220,328 fewer people in receipt of the PUP than at the end of April 2020.

Of the 315,647 estimated to have been directly supported by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) in March 2021, 56.8% were male and 43.2% were female while 13.4% were under 25 and 86.6% were aged 25 or over.

Live register

In March 2021, 905,575 people were on the live register or were benefitting from the PUP, Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) or the EWSS, down from 941,070 in February 2021.

Of the 385,211 in receipt of the PUP for the week ending 2 May, 52.3% were male, 70.6% were Irish, and almost a quarter were in each of the 25-34-year-old (22.0%) and 35-44-year-old (22.1%) age groups.

A total of 863,546 people have received at least one payment since the scheme was established in March 2020, of which 56.1% were male and 47.7% were between 25 and 44.

The number receiving the payment has decreased on a weekly basis since 14 February, following seven weeks of increase.