The Irish Business and Employers Confederation says the jobs market is stabilising.

IBEC's latest jobs report has shown its first annual increase of employment since 2008 with over 5,000 new jobs created in the first quarter of this year.

But the group have warned that the Government need to put a break on further tax increases in a bid not to push dole queue numbers up further.

IBEC's Chief Economist, Fergal O'Brien says any further increases would make work less attractive, undermine the ability of companies to invest and create new jobs and damage Ireland's competitiveness.

And he says the only way forward for Ireland is to bring down taxes:

The IBEC jobs report also found that the decrease in the total number of unemployed people in Ireland was due to a combination of a rise in the number of those who have become discouraged from seeking employment and becasue a higher number of people emigrating.

Numbers in long term unemployment also fell10% over a 10 month period but the overall figure remians 'worryingly high', according to IBEC, at 60%.

It also found that there was a 2.3% fall in the number of people employed in the public sector while numbers employed in the private sector rose by nearly 1%.