The Live Register is a count of people registering for Jobseeker's Allowance, Jobseeker's Benefit, and related payments. It is not the official unemployment rate and should not be read as an unemployment-rate table by nationality.

167,107Total persons on the Live Register in May 2026.
119,593Irish nationals in the May 2026 nationality table.
23,772Other Nationals in the May 2026 nationality table.
-9.1%Change in total Live Register count from January 2020 to May 2026.

May 2026 Nationality Breakdown

Nationality categoryMay 2026Year-on-year change
Irish Nationals119,593+3,426
Other Nationals23,772+489
EU15 to EU2714,898+549
United Kingdom5,115-7
EU14 excl Ireland3,729+381

Caveat: changes by nationality reflect changes in the labour market and changes in the eligible resident population. Without population denominators, these are counts, not rates.

Source

Central Statistics Office table LRM19 via the CSO Live Register release data: Live Register May 2026 data.

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