The number of people on the seasonally adjusted Live Register dropped by 700 last month.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) said this brings the total to 194,700.

The number of persons on the register in April was also the lowest number recorded in the seasonally adjusted series since February 2008.

In unadjusted terms, there were 193,118 persons signing on the Live Register last month - an annual decrease of 30,484.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Live Register showed a monthly drop of 1,000 men in April, while women increased by 100 over the same period.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of male claimants decreased by 20,584 to 107,765 in the year to April, while female claimants fell by 9,900 to 85,353.

This compares with a decrease of 24,304 to 128,349 for men, while women decreased by 15,511 to 95,253 in the year to April.

The number of long-term claimants was 74,940 - with a drop for both men and women.

This represented an overall annual decrease of 17,769 in the number of long-term claimants.

In April, 61.2% of all claimants were short-term.

The number of persons aged 25 and over on the Live Register also fell by 26,312, and the number of persons aged under 25 decreased by 4,172.

Annual decreases in persons aged under 25 have occurred in all months since July 2010.

There were 16,921 new registrants on the register last month, consisting of 9,180 Jobseeker's Benefit claims, 7,099 Jobseeker's Allowance claims and 642 Other Registrants.