Job creation accelerated at the turn of the year helping total employment to increase by 90,000 in the 12 months to February, latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.
More than half of the extra employees were immigrant workers. The data also reflect strong employment growth in the construction and services sectors.
The figures were welcomed by Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin yesterday, but small business lobby Isme and the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployment expressed concern at emerging labour market trends.
Employment jumped by 17,500 persons between last December and February, according to the latest Quarterly National Household Survey.
An even stronger increase, of 25,400, was evident when seasonal factors affecting employment are taken into account.
Headline employment reached 1.998 million during the period but, when seasonally adjusted, employment passed two million for the first time.
Unemployment was largely unchanged on a seasonally adjusted basis, but fell on an annual basis as the manufacturing sector continued to shed jobs.
The construction sector accounted for 20,000 of the 90,000 jobs created in the 12 months to February, but was recently overtaken by the financial services sector as the biggest single contributor to jobs growth.
Financial services accounted for 5,000 of the jobs created between December and February, compared with 3,700 jobs created in the construction sector, seasonally adjusted figures reveal.
Over the same period, 9,100 jobs were created in the sectors of health, education and in public administration and defence.
The strong contribution of immigrant labour to job creation was noted by economic analysts, who also contrasted the strength of public sector employment with job losses in the industrial sector.
Austin Hughes, chief economist with Irish Intercontinental Bank (IIB), said the Republic's job creation record was unique in the developed world and pointed to the importance of immigrant labour.
"The current pace of job growth in Ireland is around 10 times that being seen in the UK, Germany and France at present and about three times faster than the US," he said.
He added that while such growth would normally cause strong wage growth, this was being prevented by significant growth in immigration.
"Foreign nationals accounted for almost 50,000 of the 90,000 rise in employment in the past year," he said.
Goodbody's Dermot O'Leary said: "It is clear that the cap that was placed on public sector recruitment some years ago didn't fit."
