The sharp decline in industrial jobs is continuing, according to data from the Central Statistics Office.

New figures for industrial employment to the end of June contradict claims that the jobs market is holding up despite the downturn in the economy.

They show that in just over two years, numbers in industrial employment have fallen from more than 270,000 to just over 245,000.

The decline has been steady over that period and continued in the second quarter of this year, with a seasonally-adjusted drop from 248,700 to 245,900.

The latest figures paint a slightly darker picture of the jobs market than the Quarterly National Household Survey figures published at the end of August.

They indicated only a slight fall in employment in industries in the three months to the end of May. Different methodologies are employed in the two surveys.

Yesterday's statistics show a particularly sharp decline, of 3,500, in the numbers employed in the manufacture of electrical equipment over the year to the end of June.

Nearly all other sectors, including textiles, chemical products, rubber and plastic, machinery and equipment, metal products and transport equipment, also suffered declines.

The overall 12-month decline was 10,600, from 256,500 in industrial employment at the end of June 2002.

Other figures published by the CSO yesterday showed a dramatic rise in days lost to industrial dispute this year.

Those lost in the second quarter alone, 29,000, was almost 8,000 more than the total lost in 2002.

Health and social work, and public administration and defence, were the two areas most affected.

By the end of June, 32,151 days had been lost to industrial disputes this year, compared with 13,289 for the same period in 2002.

The figures were described as "very disappointing" by Mr Brendan McGinty, director of industrial relations with employers' body IBEC.

He claimed the data "clearly showed" that the principal cause of industrial action was rooted in the public sector.

There was some good news for workers in a further set of CSO figures released yesterday, which showed average industrial earnings rose by 9.2 per cent in the year to the end of June.

The average weekly earnings of all employees increased by 8.4 per cent over the same period.

IBEC's director of economic affairs, Mr Brian Geoghegan, said the rise in industrial earnings was well ahead of the rate of increase in competitor countries.