The country's unemployment rate remained at a record low 3.8% in June, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show today.
The unemployment rate in May first fell to the level last seen in the early days of the Celtic Tiger boom as the economy continued to grow on a wave of investment from foreign multinationals and jobs grew in almost every sector.
Today's CSO figures show that the unemployment rate for men rose to 4.2% in June from a rate of 4.1% in May and June of last year, while it was unchanged at 3.4% for women and down from a rate of 4.4% in June of last year.
They also reveal that the youth unemployment rate in June rose to 7.4% from a rate of 6.9% in May.
The CSO said the seasonally adjusted number of people who were without a job stood at 105,400 in June, up from 102,800 the previous month.
There was a decrease of 6,000 in the seasonally adjusted number of persons unemployed in June of this year compared to the same month last year, it added.
Separate data today showed that foreign firms added 12,000 jobs so far this year and IDA Ireland said it expects the number of people employed in the sector to increase on a net basis this year despite some job cuts.
Pawel Adrjan, Director of Economic Research at hiring platform Indeed, noted that since January of this year, when unemployment stood at 4.3%, the monthly unemployment rate has fallen steadily each month.
He said that a low unemployment rate is good news for jobseekers, those looking to change roles or those preparing to ask for a wage increase, but maybe not so for certain employers, especially those already experiencing difficulties in finding the right staff and keeping costs under control.
"The most recent Indeed Wage Tracker showed annual wage growth in Ireland has remained steady at 4.9%, but it comes as growth in advertised wages remains significantly above historical levels in all eight of the tracked countries," he said.
"Amid an uncertain economic growth outlook for the EU and UK, along with higher interest rates and tighter monetary policy from policymakers fighting inflation, unemployment rates remain at or near historic lows. Job vacancies have gradually fallen in most countries, but they are still high relative to historical levels, leading to a tight labour market overall," he added.
He also said that a high ratio of vacancies to unemployment - when there are more jobs available than workers to fill them - increases workers' bargaining power, putting upward pressure on wages.
"There is a strong positive correlation between this ratio and growth in advertised wages in most of the countries tracked by Indeed," he said.
