58,000 more people in work than a year ago

There are almost 1.9m people in work — the highest employment level since the autumn of 2009 — and experts are forecasting the figures will only get better in 2014.

However, those with jobs are earning an average of €16 or 2.5% less a week than they were 12 months ago.

The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show 58,000 more people had jobs at the end of September than at the same time last year. That meant the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped from 13.6% to 12.8% over that period.