The Republic now has the lowest rate in percentage terms of seasonally-adjusted unemployment since modern records began in 1983, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

The figures for September show the seasonally-adjusted rate at 8.8 per cent, down from 9 per cent in the previous month. In the last four years the rate has fallen by 6.3 percentage points and is comfortably below the current EU average of 10.1 per cent.

The seasonally-adjusted figure fell by 5,100 last month to 220,000 and by 30,200 over the last year. Unemployment normally falls during September but the 11,320 drop in the unadjusted figures in September is well above what would normally be expected and is also the largest recorded to date. Some 60 per cent of the monthly decrease was accounted for by women. The unadjusted figure now stands at 219,200.

The 8.8 per cent seasonally-adjusted rate compares with 9.6 per cent in Germany, 18.6 per cent in Spain and 11.8 per cent in France. However, according to the last available figures, British unemployment is lower at 6.2 per cent, while the rate in the United States is 4.5 per cent.

The figures show seasonally adjusted unemployment among people under 25 also falling from 46,200 in August to 44,800 in September. The Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Ahern said the latest figures showed "a massive drop".

He said they represented "a major breakthrough on the unemployment front and particularly in relation to the number of longterm unemployed people on the register, which is now estimated at less than 100,000".

The Labour Party welcomed the reduction in the rate to 8.8 per cent, but said some of the methods being used to reduce unemployment were "unsatisfactory".

The leader of Democratic Left, Mr Proinsias De Rossa said there was no room for complacency.