Employment grows in 2013, but not for under 35s
According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) the numbers at work grew for the third successive quarter in the first three months of this year. There were 7,700 more jobs in the economy in the January-March period than three months earlier.
Less positively, the Quarterly National Household Survey showed that most of the gains in employment have been in part-time rather than full-time jobs.
The numbers of under-35s at work continued to fall in the first quarter of 2013, a trend that has been ongoing since 2007. There were just under 650,000 under-35s in employment in the January-March period, down from a million in 2007.
By contrast, employment among the 35-and-older age group has recovered to the peak recorded before the downturn.
The biggest single source of new jobs has been in the agriculture sector.
Among the sectors experiencing falling employment, construction was worst hit.
For the first time on record the numbers at work in the industry fell below the 100,000 mark.