Strong jobs growth among married women and students helped increase the number of people working to 1.65 million in the three months to the end of February, pushing the official unemployment rate below 5 per cent for the first time.

The 4.7 per cent rate of unemployment compares with an EU average of 8.8 per cent, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said. Only Austria, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal had lower unemployment rates in the EU, said Mr Joe Treacy, a senior CSO statistician.

Dublin had the lowest unemployment rate at 3.9 per cent, while the Border counties and Sligo had the highest average rate, of 7.3 per cent. The rate in the midlands was 6.6 per cent.

These figures, from the quarterly State household survey, are compiled separately from the monthly live register, which is based on social welfare claims and provides only an approximation of the unemployment rate. Last Friday's live register for May showed the unofficial unemployment rate was 4.6 per cent.

Yesterday's figures showed 81,500 people were unemployed in the first quarter of the year, indicating that the jobless rate had almost halved since April 1997, when 159,000 people were out of work.

Of the unemployed, 29,700 people were out of work for more than one year, 14,000 fewer than in spring 1999, and about 51,700 people were short-term unemployed.

But the survey showed that the labour force grew by 82,000 in the year to March, reflecting a rising population of working age and increasing participation rates. "The percentage in the labour force has been increasing in almost all age groups, but most notably for persons under 25 and for married females aged 25 to 54," said the CSO.

There were 95,600 more jobs in the first quarter of the year than in the comparable period in 1999. But while equal numbers of men and women joined the workforce, men took more full-time positions than women.

Female labour force participation rose by 2.3 percentage points to 46.8 per cent in the year to March, although Mr Treacy said the level of adult females working was still below the EU average.

Yesterday's figures, which included a breakdown of the workforce by occupation for the first time, showed that male managers outnumber their female counterparts by three to one. Three times more women than men worked as clerks and secretaries.

Overall, there were 20,400 more jobs in the construction industry and 19,800 in financial and business services. An additional 12,000 of the State's 364,400 students joined the labour force, mainly in part-time posts.