Five years ago Ireland had the second-highest jobless rate in the EU. Now the rate stands at 9.4 per cent, according to last month's Central Statistics Office figures, with the figure for the European Union at 10.4 per cent.
The rate for March 1993 was 15.7 per cent, with 294,500 on the Live Register. Three months later, the rate began its long descent to its present position. In 1994 the average unemployment rate was 14.1 per cent, in 1995 it was 12.2 per cent, in 1996 it was 11.5 per cent and in 1997 it was 10.2 per cent.
Last November's unemployment rate of 9.9 per cent broke through the psychologically important 10 per cent barrier for the first time in 20 years.
The unemployment total fell to a seven-year low in March, with 234,200 people on the Live Register, a drop of 27,000 in the past year.
Two years ago a Forfas report, Shaping our future: A Strategy for Enterprise in Ireland in the 21st Century, predicted that the then unemployment rate of 13 per cent should fall to 6 per cent by 2010.