The country's unemployment rate rose to 4.8% in November, up from a revised rate of 4.7% in October, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show today.
The jobless rate stood at 4.5% in November last year.
Today's CSO figures show that the unemployment rate for men in November was unchanged at 4.9% from the revised rate in October 2023, and up from a revised rate of 4.2% in November 2022.
The jobless rate for women rose to 4.6% in November from a rate of 4.5% in October but was down from a revised rate of 4.7% in November 2022.
The CSO said the seasonally adjusted number of people who were unemployed stood at 132,700 in November, up from 131,800 in October 2023.
There was an increase of 12,600 in the seasonally adjusted number of people unemployed in November 2023 when compared with a year earlier, the CSO added.
Today's figures also show that the youth unemployment rate rose to 12.8% in November from a revised rate of 12.6% in October.
Commenting on today's CSO figures, Jack Kennedy, senior economist at global job site Indeed, said that while the Irish labour market has proved resilient overall in 2023, it has softened in recent months with unemployment rising modestly and vacancies gradually drifting down from peaks, while remaining far above pre-pandemic levels.
"The rise in unemployment is not unexpected. Indeed's latest data shows Irish job postings were 23.4% above pre-pandemic levels at the start of December," Mr Kennedy said.
"This is down from 25.5% at the end of October, 27% at the end of September and well below a recent high of 65% in February 2022," he noted.
"We may see further gradual softening in labour demand in 2024 reflecting headwinds in the wider economy and the gradual normalisation of vacancies from post-pandemic peaks. Hiring should become somewhat easier for employers as a result, although this may not be the case in certain sectors which continue to hold up strongly such as healthcare," he added.
