The Covid-19 crisis continues to have a "significant" impact on the labour market here, new figures from the Central Statistics Office confirm today.
The CSO's latest figures show that the unemployment rate, including those receiving temporary Covid-19 jobless benefits, fell to 14.7% at the end of September from a revised level of 15.3% a month earlier.
The jobless rate, which stood at 4.8% before the coronavirus crisis, hit a record 28.8% in April after 600,000 people claimed the special payments, which are due to expire next April.
When those on the Covid-19 payments are excluded, the CSO said the unemployment rate rose to 5.4% in September from 5.2% in August.