The live register rose slightly in December when seasonal factors were taken into account, leaving the Government's estimate of unemployment at 4.5 per cent.

This was unchanged on the November estimate and slightly higher than the 4.4 per cent figure for October.

The increase in the numbers signing on the live register was the third successive monthly rise in seasonally adjusted terms and the fourth such rise in unadjusted terms, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The CSO extrapolates the unemployment figure from the live register number.

As is normal for December, the unadjusted register rose strongly in the second half of December, ending the month at 155,400 persons, some 6,900 higher than at the end of November.

But, according to CSO calculations, 300 persons signed on the register for non-seasonal factors, such as lay-offs.

This confirms the trend seen in redundancy figures, published by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment last week, showing that a series of higher redundancies, begun in October, continued into December. The monthly change balances a 600-person increase in the number of males signing on with a fall of 300 in the number of females.

Alan McQuaid, chief economist with Bloxham stockbrokers, predicted that the live register would rise modestly in 2007, despite strong jobs growth this year.

"It is likely to rise to around 159,000 as the number of part-time and casual workers in the economy increases," he said.

Calling on the government to "sit up and take notice" of the figures, Labour TD Ruairi Quinn accused the Government of delaying necessary action for electoral reasons.

"This Government appears to believe that if they can keep ignoring the warning signs and do nothing until after the election, they will somehow be able to back-track and make the necessary correction afterwards," Mr Quinn said yesterday.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) yesterday released unemployment figures for its members. While remaining higher than in Ireland, the average unemployment rate amongst the 30 leading economies of the world stood at 5.8 per cent in November, following a steady fall from 6.5 per cent in November of 2005.