The latest figures show that the number of people at work in the economy fell by almost 9% in the third quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2008.
The Central Statistics Office also said the unemployment rate climbed to 12.4% from 11.6% in the second quarter of the year.
The CSO said there were just over 1.92 million people in employment in the third quarter, down 184,700 or 8.8% from a year earlier. The annual fall accelerated from 8.2% in the second quarter.
The largest fall in employment was again in the construction sector, where the numbers in work fell by 80,800 or 34.8% over a year. There was also a big fall in employment in industry.
According to the CSO's quarterly national household survey, just under 280,000 people were unemployed in Q3, up 120,400 or 75.5% from a year earlier. The number of unemployed men surged by 86.8%, while female unemployment rose 55.3%.
Adjusted for seasonal factors, the number of people unemployed rose by 13,100 between the second and third quarters of this year.
The CSO figures also show a decline of 64,300, or 2.8%, in the total number of people in the labour force compared with Q3 last year. The number of non-Irish workers fell by 40,500 or 11.3% over the year to 317,500. 262,800 of these were working, while 54,700 were unemployed.
