Unemployment has fallen by almost half a per cent in just three months.
New figures just published by the CSO show the official unemployment rate is now 11.1 per cent - down from 11.5 per cent at the end of June.
The figures also show the numbers at work are now at their highest since the end of 2009 - with over 10,000 people going back to work between June and September.
The CSO's Brian Ring says construction is accounting for a lot of the increased numbers with jobs.
"That's from a much lower base than would have been previously," he says.
"We're up to about 110,000 employment in construction. At the peak of construction, in 2007, you were looking at over 270,000 in employment.
"Obviously the very vast majority of those jobs would have been male, just in terms of the industry itself."
The figures have been welcomed by the Tánaiste Joan Burton, who pointed out that the unemployment rate has continued to fall since the period reflected in the figures.
She said the unemployment rate had actually fallen as low as 10.9 per cent in the most recent monthly figures for October.
"Unemployment has fallen below a quarter of a million in Ireland, but - and this is the but - it means that in terms of the Department of Social Protection, we have to redouble our efforts now.
"I'm saying to all of the civil servants in my department, particularly the senior management: 2015 will be the year of people going back to work."
Our political correspondent Gavan Reilly filed this report for Today FM's National Lunchtime News:
