Official figures show that the number of people working in the economy topped two million for the first time in the second quarter of this year.
The Central Statistics Office said the figure of 2,017,000 in employment represented an annual increase of 87,800 or 4.6%. Annual growth in employment has been above 4.5% for the past five quarters and is way ahead of the EU average growth rate of 1.7%.
Full-time jobs accounted for almost 80% of the growth, while the CSO estimates that foreign workers accounted for almost 55%, or 47,800, of the annual increase.
The number of people unemployed grew by 5,800 over the year to 91,400, but the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged from the previous three months at 4.4%. Overall the labour force increased by 4.6% in the 12 months.
A breakdown showed that growth was strongest in the construction and wholesale and retail trade sectors, which added 20,300 and 17,500 jobs respectively over the year. Health, education and finance also showed strong growth.
The CSO estimates that there were 283,300 foreign nationals aged over 15 in the State in the second quarter, with almost 200,000 in work and 14,000 unemployed. The numbers from the 10 new EU states grew by 34,000 compared with the second quarter of last year to 84,400.
Foreign workers make up a quarter of those working in the hotels and restaurants sector and 12% of workers in the building sector.
Separate CSO figures showed that the number of immigrants into the country in the 12 months to April was 86,900, the highest figure since estimates began in 1987.
The number of emigrants was 17,000, giving a net migration figure of 69,900, up from 53,400 in the 12 months to April 2005. When added to the natural increase in population - births minus deaths - this brought the population up 104,000 to 4.235 million.
43% of immigrants were from the 10 new EU states - 26% from Poland and 7% from Lithuania.
* Chambers Ireland has published its 2006 survey of the labour force, which finds that 10% of job vacancies advertised in the past 12 months remain unfilled.
The survey, which focused on older workers, found that companies felt older workers performed better in relation to team work and reliability, but were rated lower than younger workers for technical and learning skills. Chambers Ireland's John Forde called on more private companies to remove the mandatory retirement age of 65.
