Employment up to highest point in five years

Employment is up by 10,400 in just three months, as jobless figures fall to their lowest in five years.

Today's quarterly national household survey from the CSO shows the national unemployment rate is at 11.1%, down from 11.5% in June.

That means employment is at its highest level since 2009, and represents an annual increase of 1.5% - or 27,700 extra jobs.

However, continued emigration and a fall in inward migration contributed to a drop in numbers in the labour force, which fell by 9,700 in the past year. The CSO noted that the "negative demographic effect" - or population fall - is "excessively concentrated" in the 20-24 and 25-34 age groups.

Youth employment

While the rates of employment for young people are improving, the absolute numbers are down.

Unemployment among 20-24 year olds is down from 24.6% to 20.6%, and among 25-34 year olds from 13.6% to 12.5%.

The number of unemployed people aged 20-24 fell by almost 10,000 in the last year - but the total number of people working in that age group also fell by 3,600.

The same pattern can be seen among 25-34 year-olds, where unemployed numbers dropped by 9,300, while those working fell by 12,800.

That's because the number of people in the labour force in both those age groups fell by a combined 36,000 - those people are no longer in the pool available to work.

The total number of people of all ages in employment is now almost two million, with 245,500 unemployed. The long-term unemployment rate also fell from 7.6% to 6.4%.