THE RATE OF unemployment in Ireland has hit its lowest level in over 20 years.

Latest monthly data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) for the month of April reveals a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 3.9%.

Seasonally adjusted figures aim to remove the influence of predictable seasonal patterns from employment rates.

This figure of 3.9% is the lowest level seen since April of 2001.

It’s also a slight reduction on the 4% figure seen last month and the Department of Social Protection said breaking the 4% barrier is a significant milestone.

“Breaking the 4% barrier is commonly taken as the level of full employment,” said a Department spokesperson.

Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys added that the “figures are testament to the efforts that this Government has made to provide a range of supports to businesses, the self-employed and people out of work”.

The unemployment rate for males in April was unchanged from the previous month at 4.3%, and down from 3.8% in March to 3.6% for females.

Youth unemployment among those aged 15-24 was 7.9% in April, while the seasonally adjusted number of persons unemployed was 108,200, down from 109,600 in March.

There was also a decrease of 15,200 in the seasonally adjusted number of persons unemployed in April when compared with the same month a year earlier.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate reached highs of 7.7% in March and April of 2021.

However, that figure is much higher when those who were in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) are included in the figures.

For example, in April 2020, the unemployment rate would have been over 28% if claimants of the PUP were classified as “unemployed”.

It’s also a much changed landscape from a decade ago, when the unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2013 was 13.7%, with more than 292,000 people unemployed.