Forfas report highlights 'unprecedented' fall in jobs

The Central Bank has said the rate of the slowdown in job creation in Ireland and the increase in job destruction are "unprecedented".

In a new economic letters series, the Bank said higher rates of job destruction were particularly evident in smaller and Irish-owned firms.

The bank defines job destruction as "the employment loss summed over all business units

that contract or shut down between the previous year and the current one".

The paper, which is based on figures from Forfas, also shows that despite the dramatic slowdown in the economy, jobs continued to be created - albeit at a slower pace than previously.