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The CSO Quarterly National Household Survey released today

There was an annual increase in employment of 3.2% or 58,000 in the year to the third quarter of 2013, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The increase brings total employment to 1,899,300. The figures were published as part of the CSO's Quarterly National Household Survey for Quarter 3 2013.

On a seasonally adjusted basis the employment increase was 1.2% or 22,500. This compares with a seasonally adjusted increase of 0.7% (13,500) in Quarter 2 of 2013.

Seasonally adjusted unemployment decreased from 13.6% to 12.8% over the quarter, with long term unemployment decreasing from 8.9% to 7.6% over the year Quarter 3.

Long term unemployment accounted for 58.4% of total unemployment in Q3 2013, compared with 59.5% the previous year.

Social Protection Minister Joan Burton said it was a further sign of the economic recovery bedding down as Ireland prepares to successfully exit the bailout programme :

More than 1,000 people a week are returning to work, proof that the measures taken by the Government to stabilise the economy and address the unemployment crisis which we inherited are paying off.

These figures follow the separate data published by the Central Statistics Office showing that the Live Register in October fell below 400,000 for the first time in four years.

There are still far too many people out of work, and tackling unemployment will remain the Government’s number one priority, but these figures demonstrate that we are making steady progress.

I am confident that we will build on this progress and ensure the number of people returning to work continues to increase.