Ireland enjoyed a net growth of over 5,000 jobs in 2013, an Enterprise Ireland report has announced.
The government job creation agency's end-of-year report recorded over 18,000 new jobs. However, taking the number of job losses (12,591) into consideration, the jobs surplus was 5,442.
Drop in unemployment
The announcement follows on from the Central Statistics Office's December report, which showed a drop in the unemployment rate to 12.4 per cent - representing a three-year low.
While the CSO's figures were subject to criticism from some who pointed out that there were fewer people signing on as a direct result of rising emigration levels, Enterprise Ireland's job creation figures lend greater credence to the government's claims of a continued economic recovery.
'Huge credit is owed to all at Enterprise Ireland for delivering these results,' said Jobs Minister Richard Bruton. 'This is the second year in a row that employment in Irish exporting companies has shown significant growth, after several years in which jobs were shed.'
Following on from a recent Cent announcement that the unemployment rate in Ireland had hit a three-year low,