Updated 1.49pm
UNEMPLOYMENT HAS FALLEN to 12.8 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to figures published by the Central Statistics Office today.
The number of people unemployed has fallen 41,700 in the year to the third quarter of 2013, bringing the total number of people unemployed to 282,900, according to the CSO’s Quarterly National Household Survey.
On a seasonally adjusted basis the number of people in employment increased by 22,500 in the three months to the end of September.
This follows on from the increase of 13,500 in the second quarter of the year. As a result unemployment fell from 13.6 per cent to 12.8 per cent.
The annual increase in employment in the year to the third quarter was 58,000 or 2.2 per cent.
The total number of people in employment is now at nearly 1.9 million, according to the CSO figures.
Launching the third progress report on the Action Plan for Jobs 2013 at Government Buildings this afternoon, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that the government is now creating 1,200 jobs per week.
This contrasts with 1,600 jobs that were being lost every week in the three years before the government took office, Kenny claimed.
The government has delivered on 84 per cent of its targets for the third quarter of this year, down on the 96 per cent success rate in both of the two previous Action Plan for Job reports published earlier this year.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said that the CSO figures today are “very encouraging”.
“We’ve had a number of important economic indicators in recent months but today’s figures are the best indicator yet that the recovery of the economy is taking hold,” he said in a statement.
First published 11.27am
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