Unemployment has risen slightly in the first quarter of 2012, with 309,000 people now out of work.
The seasonally adjusted figure for unemployment now stands at 14.8% of the workforce.
According to the CSO quarterly national household survey for the first quarter of 2012, employment fell by 1.0%, or 18,100 people over the course of 12 months from Q1 in 2011.
There are now 1.79m people working, the lowest figure since 2003.
The Central Statistics Office says a large number of retirements and staff reductions in various areas of the public sector is reflected in some of their findings for this quarter, in terms of the number of people at work.
The survey also found long-term unemployment is rising, jumping from 7.8% in 2011 to 8.9% at the beginning of 2012.
Kieran Walsh of the CSO said that while the figures appeared to be stabilising compared to dramatic falls in employment in recent years, the "line is still downward".
