There were 1,745,500 persons in employment in the first quarter of 2002, representing an increase of 35,600 or 2.1 per cent in the year, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office this morning.
However, the figures also show that there were 80,000 persons unemployed in the first quarter of 2002, an increase of 7,400 in the quarter and 14,400 in the year.
The First Quarterly National Household Survey of 2002 shows that overall, the labour force increased by 49,900 in the year to reach 1,825,400.
In the first quarter of 2002, the unemployment rate was 4.4 per cent, compared with 4.0 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2001 and 3.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2001. The unemployment rate for males was 4.7 per cent compared with 3.9 per cent for females.
The figures show that almost all of the annual increase was accounted for by those in short-term unemployment where the numbers increased by over 13,000.
The number of females at work increased by 28,500 (4.1 per cent) in the year compared with a rise of only 7,100 (0.7 per cent) in the number of males at work.
This accounted for 59.4 per cent of all persons aged 15 or over, compared with 58.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2001.
Female participation rates increased from 47.6 per cent to 48.7 per cent while those for males decreased slightly from 70.6 per cent to 70.5 per cent.
There were 50,000 males and 30,000 females unemployed in the first quarter of 2002, representing annual increases of 11,100 and 3,300 respectively. Almost all (47,700) of the unemployed males were seeking full-time work, whereas over 10,000 of the females were looking for part-time work.
The increase in male unemployment occurred mainly amongst those aged 20-44 where there was an increase of 9,700 in the year.
The increase in female unemployment was also most pronounced amongst these age groups.
Short-term unemployment accounted for most of the annual increase in the unemployed, bringing the numbers of short-term unemployed to 56,700. The number of persons who were long-term unemployed increased by just 1,600 in the year to 23,100.
Employment grew by 10,900 (2.5 per cent) in the Border, Midland and Western regions and by 24,700 (1.9 per cent) in the Eastern and Southern regions.
Unemployment also grew in both regions by 4,600 in the Border, Midland and West and by 9,800 in the Eastern and Southern region.
Annual employment grew in all regions with the exception of the border region, where it decreased slightly.
The largest annual employment increases were in the West (+9,000) and South East (+9,100) regions.
Unemployment increased in all regions, with the highest increase of 6,000 persons in the Dublin region. The unemployment rate was highest in the Border region at 6.9 per cent and lowest in the Mid-East (3.4 per cent) and Dublin (3.6 per cent) regions.