The number of males who are long-term claimants decreased by 18,986 – or 21.7pc – in the year to April 2017, while the number of female long-term claimants decreased by 7,390 (14.6pc), according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The number of people signing on the live register overall dropped 1.7pc in April to 266,600 people, the lowest number recorded in the seasonally adjusted series since October 2008.

The overall number of male claimants decreased by 28,733, or 15.8pc, to 152,653 in the year to April 2017, while female claimants overall decreased by 13,390, or 10.8pc, to 110,764.

An apparent mismatch between the increasing number of people in jobs and lower than expected income tax receipts so far this year was raised in the Oireachtas Finance Committee this week by Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty.

The Director General of the CSO, Padraig Dalton, said in some cases jobs data counts those working just one hour a week as employed, and cautioned that jobs data should be looked at over longer periods.