The numbers at work grew for the third successive quarter in the first three months of the year according to the Central Statistics Office.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, there were 7,700 more jobs in the economy in the January-March period than three months earlier. In the 12 months to the end of March, employment increased by 20,500 or 1.1 per cent, bringing the total number of people employed in the State to 1,845,600.
Since the post-recession low-point in the second quarter of last year, net employment has risen by 24,000. This increase took place despite a decline in public sector employment over the same period of almost 5,000.
Owing to the growth in jobs and a revision to earlier figures, the unemployment rate is now estimated to have stood at 13.7 per cent of the workforce in April. This is down from the previous estimate 14.1 per cent and is the lowest rate since 2010. Unemployment has been falling gradually since it peaked at over 15 per cent in March last year.
Less positively, the Quarterly National Household Survey showed that most of the gains in employment have been part time rather than full time jobs.
Full-time employment fell by 3,700 or 0.3 per cent in the year to the end of March. This was offset by an increase in part-time employment of 24,200 or 5.6 per cent over the year.
Also of concern is the continued disproportionate impact of the jobs crisis on the young. All of the growth in employment has been to the benefit those 35 years and older.
The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME) described the figures as “chronic… despite the small reduction”.
The numbers of under 35s at work continued to fall in the first quarter of 2013, a trend that has been on-going since 2007. There were just under 650,000 under 35s in employment in the January-March period, down from 1 million in 2007.
By contrast, employment among the 35 and older age group has recovered to the peak recorded before the downturn.
Since the labour market turned around the middle of last year, employment growth by sector has widened. The single biggest employer - the retail and wholesale sector - has added 6,000 jobs, while the second biggest employer - health and social work - generated a net increase of 4,700 jobs over the same nine month period.
The third biggest sector by employment is industry, which added 4,600 jobs over the same period.
The biggest single source of new jobs has been in the agriculture sector. However, the CSO cautioned about its figures in the sector owing to technical statistical problems. Given that half of the net increase in total employment over the past three quarters has been in this sector, it is possible that the extent of the overall increase has been exaggerated.
“The so-called activation measures are not working,” said ISME chief executive Mark Fielding. “Not alone do we have over 180,000 out of work for over a year, the enforced flight of thousands of young people is robbing the country of our future, while our Government prevaricates and dithers over a Jobs Plan, full of fudge, false promise and little else.”
