The pace of redundancies has slowed for the third consecutive month, with the number of jobs lost in June coming in almost 11 per cent below the figure for the same month last year.

Data released yesterday by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment showed that 1,912 people were made redundant last month compared to 2,144 a year earlier.

However, the sharp rise in redundancies in the first quarter of 2006 means the cumulative total for the first half of the year is 3.2 per cent ahead of the year ago period. So far this year there have been 11,832 redundancies, compared with 11,463 in the first six months of 2005.

In April and May the number of redundancies declined by 27 and 10 per cent respectively.

There has been a series of job losses recently, in particular in the manufacturing sector, as companies seek to lower their cost base.

Recent figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed that job losses have been highest in more traditional industries, such as food manufacturing and textiles.

However, according to the CSO, these losses have been more than offset by gains in high-technology sectors such as the manufacturing of chemicals, computers and electrical equipment.

These latest figures relate to actual job losses, rather than company announcements of future intentions and, as a result, many of June's redundancies were announced some time ago.

Still, yesterday's figures did coincide with one such announcement. UPC Ireland, the new parent company of cable operator NTL Ireland and Chorus, said it would cut up to 350 jobs as a result of synergies created by last year's merger.