Employment has grown by 3.9% in the second quarter of 2007 compared with a year earlier, according to the Central Statistics Office's Quarterly National Household Survey.
It shows that more that just under 2.1 million people are now in employment, an annual rise of 78,000. The growth was little changed from the first quarter, but a fall from the 4.6% employment growth seen in the same period last year.
The figures indicate that foreign nationals account for 53% of the increase in employment. The CSO says more than 239,000 foreign nationals are now in employment in Ireland.
Growth in the construction sector is moderating, with employment rising by 17,600 or 6.7% in the second quarter of this year. This compares with a growth rate of 11.2% in the first three months of the year.
98,000 were unemployed in the second quarter, up 7,400 on the year, but long-term unemployment fell. When seasonal factors are taken into account, the unemployment rate moved up from 4.4% in Q1 to 4.6%.
A breakdown showed that employment in the finance, health and retail sectors also grew strongly. The only segment to show a fall was public administration and defence.
Economist with Ulster Bank, Pat McArdle, said the employment growth rate of 3.8% is still robust, compared with 1.8% in the eurozone and zero change in the UK, despite recent negative reports in the media.
'It also means that a net 21,500 jobs were created in the three months in question, a time when the press was full of stories about job losses and the impression created that overall employment might be contracting', he said.
He said additional jobs were created in wholesale and retail (3,800), hotels and restaurants (4,000) and financial and other business services (12,400).
The public sector ceased to expand and agriculture and manufacturing contracted marginally, with construction contracting by 1,500, the first decline in recent times.
He said today's figures do not tell us much about construction, and figures to be released in November covering June to August are expected to see an acceleration of the latest trend with construction down further but the rest of the economy exhibiting strong growth in employment.
Dermot O'Leary, chief economist with Goodbody Stockbrokers, said for the first time in fourteen quarters, the construction sector did not account for the largest proportion of the job gains.
He said this position was taken by the financial services sector in the latest data, which witnessed annual growth of 7.6%, and accounted for over a quarter of the increase in jobs overall over the past year.
He said, although employment in construction was ahead by 6.7% yoy the effects of the slowing output in the residential sector are beginning to show through.
'While we still expect employment growth to ease over the coming quarters, associated with the slowdown in the residential sector, there is obviously clear momentum in other areas of the labour market that will help employment to grow overall', he said.
