There were more than two million people at work last year, according to 2016 Census data analysed by the Central Statistics Office.
This was an increase of 11% on the figure for 2011.
Its latest research on 'Employment, Occupations and Industry' also shows the number of retired people rose by nearly a fifth to 545,000 between 2011 to 2016.
During that time IT saw a 55% jump to almost 60,000 in the number of people working in the sector, while the number of people working in residential care and social work increased by 24% to more than 102,000.
The sectors with the largest drops in employee numbers between 2011 and 2016 were financial services (down from 54,027 to 46,674) and public administration (down nearly 5,000 to 83,687).
At more than 293,000 people, there was a near 10% rise in the number of non-Irish nationals working here over the period, according to the CSO figures.
The Senior Statistician with the CSO, Deirdre Cullen, said the largest growing industrial sector in Ireland is computer programming and information service activities, adding that it's now the fifth most important sector after hospitals and retail.
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, she said other sectors showing increases include construction (up 26%) and pre-primary education (up 38%).
She said there were 82,000 immigrants into Ireland over the period and 41,000 of them were working, with the number one sector being accommodation and food services, followed by IT.
