The economy has sustained employment growth rate of more than 5 per cent in the third quarter of the year bringing the total in employment to nearly two million.
The latest Quarterly National Household Survey released today shows there were 1,989,800 people in employment in the third quarter of 2005, an increase of 96,200 since the start of the year.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin said the figures "clearly show that current Government policies are working extremely well."
"The consensus approach under Social Partnership of involving employers, employees and Government, has also been a major contributor to this success."
Ireland is outperforming the rest of the EU in job creation leading to an influx of new migrants who have bolstered consumer spending and the property market. The extra workers have also dampened wage inflation in many sectors.
The latest available figures for all 25 EU member states, which are for the second quarter of 2005, show that between the second quarters of 2004 and 2005 Ireland's employment level grew by 5.1 per cent and its labour force by 4.9 per cent.
The comparable figures for the EU-15 countries were 1.5 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively.
The labour force, which is the total of all those in jobs and all those available for work, has grown by 99,000 or 5 per cent so far this year of which 40,000 are migrants. The total labour force available for work has risen to 2,086,500.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.3 per cent compared with 4.4 per cent in the same quarter of 2004.