Rising demand for labour pushed unemployment to a new low of 4.3 per cent in the April-June period, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said yesterday. This contrasts with the EU rate of 8.5 per cent, but the CSO said labour force growth was slower than a year earlier.

Some 74,900 people were unemployed in the period, 22,000 less than in 1999. Two-thirds of the annual fall - from 5.7 per cent - reflected a dip in longterm unemployment.

About 27,400 people were unemployed over the long term while the remainder had been out of work for less than one year.

The unemployment rate in the first three months of the year was 4.7 per cent. Figures showed labour force growth of 57,500 since spring 1999 - in the previous 12 months, it rose by 67,000.

These official unemployment rates are distinct from monthly estimations compiled from the CSO's live register figures, which include part-time, seasonal and casual workers entitled to dole payments.

New figures also show the State's population rising by 42,300 to 3.79 million in the year to April. The difference between people leaving the State and arriving to live in it was 20,000 while births exceeded deaths by 22,300.

Asked about the number of asylum-seekers resident in the State, Mr O'Hanlon said: "It would have been 7,000 in 1999, 11,000 in 2000 in broad order if we had been able to take account of them in the context of generally tentative numbers."

This year's figure included some 3,000 or 4,000 asylum seekers temporarily residing in hotels and hostels, whose exclusion from the quarterly national household survey distorts the CSO's estimation of the distribution of migration across states. About 2,000 or 3,000 asylum-seekers were staying in temporary accommodation last year, Mr O'Hanlon added.

The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed said the Government should aim to create a "meaningful full-employment society" in the Budget. "They will need to take minimum wage workers out of the tax net, deliver a decent dole increase and introduce the parents' childcare payment, which is the most equitable way to ensure that parents can choose quality childcare," said its general secretary, Mr Tony Monks.

Cumulative figures revealed that private sector employment had grown by 400,000 since 1995. Apart from a decline of 5,000 workers in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector in the second quarter of the year, employment grew in all industries. Employment in construction grew by 24,200 and an additional 16,300 people were working in financial and other business services.

At 3.4 per cent, unemployment in the Dublin region was the lowest in the State. The highest rate - 6.6 per cent - was in the Border region.

Unemployment in the western region rose to 5 per cent from 4.6 per cent in the second quarter, but the latest figure was lower than in the same period last year, when the rate was 5.2 per cent.