New figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) suggest unemployment in Ireland is at its lowest number since January 2008.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Live Register recorded a monthly drop of 2,300 - or 1.2% - in November.

This brings the seasonally adjusted total to 186,400.

While the number of persons signing on last month was the lowest number recorded in the seasonally adjusted series since 2008.

In unadjusted terms, there were 177,554 people signing on - which was an annual decrease of 18,707 since November last year.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Live Register showed a monthly decrease of 400 (-0.4%) for men, while women also fell by 1,900 (-2.3%) over the same period.

In unadjusted terms, the number of men claiming decreased by 10,177 to 100,659 in the year to November.

While female claimants dropped by 8,530 to 76,895.

The number of long-term claimants was 68,002, which was an overall annual decrease of 12,555.

Last month, 61.7% of all claimants on the Live Register were short-term.

And there were 36,526 casual and part-time workers on the register in November - which represented 20.6% of the total.

In the year to November, the number of casual and part-time workers fell by 5,233.