New figures show that the number of people employed in the Irish economy grew by more than 26,000 in the 12 months to the end of February, in spite of the economic slowdown.
However, the increase was accounted for entirely by the growth in the number of public sector jobs.
The figures are contained in the Quarterly National Household Survey, published by the Central Statistics office.
The increase in employment was evenly divided between male and female employment.
The Quarterly National Household Survey is regarded as giving the most accurate picture of the labour market situation.
It shows that the number of people in the labour force grew by 31,600 over the past 12 months. Almost 5,000 of these people did not find jobs.
As a result the numbers unemployed rose by 4,900 to 84,900.
More than 80% of this rise in unemployment was accounted for by males.
The CSO survey also revealed a decline of about 1% in the average number of hours worked per employee each week, to 37.2 hours.
This, combined with the 1.3% increase in the numbers in employment, suggests only a marginal overall increase in the total number of man hours worked throughout the economy over the past twelve months.
Today's figures show a reduction of 7,400 in employment in agriculture, forestry and fishing, while the numbers employed in other industries was down 7,200.
Employment in financial services was broadly unchanged.
However, employment grew in all other sectors of the economy.
The biggest growth areas were health, which is up 12,300; Education, which is up 8,400; and Public Administration and Defence, which is up 6,600.
