Ireland sees continued increase in employment

Ireland is seeing continued increase in employment, with the number of those at work at the highest level since 2008, according to new figures on Tuesday.

The figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed that more than two million people are now working in Ireland, an additional 56,500 people, or a 2.9-percent increase in employment in the past year.

The CSO figures also showed that 72 percent of all jobs created in the past year were created outside Dublin.

Employment has been growing continuously for 16 quarters and over the past year employment has grown in all regions, the CSO said.

It said the industries sector was the fastest growing sector in the economy while the accommodation and food service sectors and construction sectors remained strong with employment growing in 12 out of 14 economic sectors.

The CSO said unemployment had decreased by 12.6 percent during the year, bringing the total number of unemployed to 172,500.

Ireland's monthly unemployment rate stood at 7.5 percent in October, according to the CSO.

"The CSO figures today are very welcome and show that our job growth is recovering. I am particularly encouraged to see figures showing the vast majority of new jobs are being created outside of Dublin as one of my key priorities remains keeping a focus on job growth in all regions around Ireland," said Mary Mitchell O'Connor, minister for jobs, enterprise and innovation. Endit