Irish unemployment fell to 11 per cent in October from 11.1 per cent in September, the 10th straight month in which it dropped, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said.

It stood at 12.4 per cent in October last year.

On a seasonally-adjusted basis, the live register fell by 3,500 or 0.9 per cent in October to 371,400.

The number of men signing on fell by 1.3 per cent last month while the number of women fell by 0.4 per cent.