The number of people in employment passed the two million mark for the first time in the second quarter of 2006, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
During the quarter there were 2,017,000 people in employment, equivalent to an annual increase of 87,800 or 4.6 per cent.
The number of men in employment increased by 51,900 or 4.7 per cent year-on-year, while the number of females in the workforce grew by 35,900 or 4.4 per cent.
Between the first quarters of 2005 and 2006 Ireland's employment level grew by 4.7 per cent and its labour force by 4.8 per cent compared to an EU average of 1.7 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively.
However, the number of people unemployed also rose during the second quarter of 2006:
There were 91,4000 persons not working, an increase of 5,800 year-on-year
According to the CSO, over the past eight years the numbers in employment have grown 523,000 or 35 per cent. The number the number of females in the work force increased by just under 262,000, or 44 per cent, while the numbers of males employed rose by just over 261,000 or 29 per cent.
Over 84,000 people from the new EU Member States are now working in Ireland compared to 50,400 in the second quarter of 2005, with as many as
one in
five people from new Member States employed in the construction sector.
