Ireland's unemployment rate declined for the fourth successive quarter in the first three months of 2013, the Central Statistics Office said Thursday.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased to 13.7 percent in the first quarter from 14.1 percent in the fourth quarter, marking the fourth fall in a row.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, there were around 295,700 unemployed persons in Ireland in the first quarter, down from 302,300 recorded in the preceding three-month period.
The labor force participation rate was 59.8 percent during the three-month period, unchanged from the figure for the fourth quarter.
On an unadjusted basis, the number of jobless persons dropped 9.3 percent annually to around 292,000 in the first quarter. Unadjusted unemployment has now decreased for the third consecutive quarter, after having been on the rise continuously since 2005.
At the same time, employment increased 1.1 percent annually to around 1.85 million in the first quarter, significantly faster than the fourth quarter's 0.1 percent gain. Sequentially, seasonally adjusted employment moved up by 0.4 percent, the agency said.
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