Irish employment levels have increased by 3% this year, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Ths rise of 3.0% - or 66,700 in the year to the third quarter - brings total employment to 2,273,200.

This compares with an annual increase of 3.4% or 74,100 in employment in the previous quarter - and an increase of 2.2% or 48,500 in the year to Q3 2017.

Unemployment was down 12.1% or 19,700 to 143,800 in the year to Q3 2018.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was down from 5.8% to 5.7%.

Source: CSO

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) replaced the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) from the end of last year.

Long-term unemployment, which refers to people unemployed for one year or more, made up 34.9% of total unemployment in Q3 2018.

The total number of people in the labour force is now 2,417,000 - up 2.0% or 46,900 from Q3 2017.

The number of those not in the labour force is 1,443,200, which is up 1.0% or 14,500 from a year earlier.

Source: CSO

The employment rate in Ireland increased by 1.1 percentage point to 68.5% over the year to Q2 2018.

The employment rate in the EU-28 in Q2 2018 was 68.6%.

'Nearing full employment'

Commenting on the CSO data, Business Minister Heather Humphreys said: "This consistent improvement is reflective of the success of the Government’s annual Action Plan for Jobs - first introduced in 2012.2

"The economy has had a complete turn-around since 2012 and we are nearly at full employment.

"The Government remains committed to maintaining the strong momentum in job growth, while taking into consideration new and evolving context.

"This will be carried out through our plan for the next phase of Ireland’s economic development, Future Jobs, which is currently being developed and will be published in early 2019."