Annual jobs boost is less than last year: CSO

The annual increase in the employment rate for the third quarter of this year was just 0.5%, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office today.

The figure compares to a year-on-year increase of 1.9% in the second quarter.

CSO director Gerry O'Hanlon said one of the reasons for the poor third-quarter figure was the lack of seasonal jobs for students during the summer period.

He said there were 15,000 more seasonal jobs last year than there were this year.