Some 4,012 extra jobs have been created by Local Enterprise Office (LEO) supported companies in the past 12 months.

The Jobs Minister Richard Bruton has published the annual results for LEOs for 2014.

In total, over 7,300 new jobs were created. Taking losses into account, there was a net increase of 14%.

The LEOs are seen as the local first-stop shop for new entrepreneurs and existing small business owners.

Overall, at the end of 2014, total direct employment among the 6,058 LEO client companies stood at 31,326.

Of these, 22,555 were full-time and 8,771 were part-time jobs. Over 31,000 people are employed by LEO client companies.

The results were put together by the Enterprise Ireland Centre of Excellence, using the same systems applied to the Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland annual results.

The results also show that last year, jobs growth happened in every county in companies supported by LEOs.

Minister Bruton said: "Today's annual results show that the new system is performing extremely strongly, with over 4,000 extra jobs in supported companies in 2014, and jobs growth in every county of the country."

"I wish to commend the 31 heads of LEO and all of their staff on this excellent achievement. I also wish to pay tribute to Enterprise Ireland and the Local Authorities who have supported the LEO," he added.

 The LEOs also approved a total of €14.359m in grant assistance for 850 projects by their client companies.