Unemployment — currently 4.6 per cent — is amongst the lowest of EU countries and is very low by historical standards in Ireland. This good performance in a more difficult economic climate reflects, inter alia, the resilience and flexibility of the labour market.
Economic stabilisation in a region of a monetary union is left to other areas such as fiscal policy, and structural, including incomes, policy. Fiscal policy has been managed prudently in Ireland for many years. This allowed the automatic stabilisers to soften the impact of the ups and downs of the economic cycle.