The unemployment rate declined slightly between July and September and stands at 4.4 per cent, according to the latest quarterly data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Over this period, the number of people in employment grew by almost 45,500 or 3.3 per cent, with over seven out of every 10 people joining the workforce coming from one of the 12 new accession states.
The number of people at work nationally now stands at 2,149,000, an increase of some 67,600 compared with the same period the previous year.
The number of people unemployed now stands at 106,100, a rise of 1,300 over the three months to September. During this period the seasonally adjusted figure fell from 4.5 per cent to 4.4 per cent.
There was further evidence of a slowdown in the construction sector, with employment in this sector rising by just 1.7 per cent over the first nine months of the year, compared with an annual growth rate of 6.7 per cent in the previous quarter.
The CSO said that 54.4 per cent of the employment growth can be attributed to an increase of 36,800 in part-time employment, predominately females.