DUBLIN, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The number of the unemployed people in Ireland stood at 132,900 in the first quarter of this year, 30,500 people fewer or down 18.6 percent compared with the same period last year, said a labour force survey released here on Wednesday.
The survey published by Central Statistics Office, the Irish national statistics bureau, said that the number of the unemployed people in the country in the year to March had witnessed a drop for 23 quarters in a row.
Of the total unemployed, the number of people under long-term unemployment, which refers to people unemployed for one year or more, accounted for 37.7 percent, said the survey.
The survey also showed that the number of the employed people in the country increased by 62,100 persons or 2.9 percent to a total of over 2.2 million in Q1 2018 when compared with Q1 2017.
The largest rates of increase were recorded in the sectors of public administration, defense and compulsory social security, which witnessed a year-on-year increase of 10.4 percent in the first quarter of this year, it said.
According to the survey, the total number of people in the country's labour force aged 15 to 64 stood at slightly over 2.35 million in the first three months of this year, up by 1.4 percent compared with a year ago.
