Live Register — Cork
13,664, latest September 2026 (+3.1% year on year, from 13,259).
13,664 people were on the Live Register. 25 years and over accounted for the largest share (12,169, 89%). Next largest was Under 25 years (1,495). The largest year-on-year movement was 25 years and over, 3% higher (12,169).
This is the Live Register: people who sign on with the Department of Social Protection, including some part-time workers. It is not the unemployment rate. The CSO's monthly unemployment rate comes from the Labour Force Survey and counts everyone without a job who is looking for one, whether or not they sign on.
What these terms mean
- Live Register
- The number of people signing on for Jobseeker's Benefit, Jobseeker's Allowance or credited contributions at a social welfare office. It is a claimant count, not an unemployment rate. Source
- Under 25 years
- Claimants aged under 25. Published separately because youth claimant counts move differently from the rest of the register and are watched on their own.
- Why this is not the unemployment rate
- An unemployment rate divides unemployed people by the labour force. The Live Register does neither: it counts claims, includes some people working part-time, and misses unemployed people who do not claim.
Before you use these figures
- Not a measure of unemployment: The Live Register is a count of people claiming certain social welfare payments, not a count of unemployed people. It includes part-time, seasonal and casual workers who are entitled to benefit, and excludes people who are unemployed but not claiming. CSO's measure of unemployment is the Monthly Unemployment Estimate, which is a different figure.
- Counted where the office is, not where the person lives: Claimants are counted at the social welfare office they sign on at, which is not always in the county they live in. Counties whose residents commonly claim across a boundary can therefore read a little high or low.
- Seasonal — compare year on year: The register rises when school and college leavers sign on and falls again as they find work, so month-to-month movement largely tracks the season. Only year-on-year change is flagged for these series.
- Not adjusted for population: This figure — 1,495 — is well outside the typical range for other areas currently publishing this dataset (median about 458 across 25 other areas). This is a raw count, not adjusted for population — a larger area is expected to report a larger number regardless of anything unusual happening there. Not itself a sign of a data problem.
- Not adjusted for population, February 2026: This area's February 2026 figure was 1,486, well outside the typical range for other areas that reported for February 2026 (median about 453 across 25 other areas). This figure is a raw count, not adjusted for population — a larger area is expected to report a larger number regardless of anything unusual happening there. Not itself a sign of a data problem.
Cite this figure:
Live Register 13,664 for Cork, September 2026 Caveats: Not a measure of unemployment; Counted where the office is, not where the person lives; Seasonal — compare year on year; Not adjusted for population; Not adjusted for population, February 2026 StatsMapped last confirmed this figure unchanged on 11 Oct 2026. Source: CSO PxStat https://statsmapped.com/ireland/county/cork/live-register-cork