The number of people out of work rose in May, according to the latest live register figures from the Central Statistics Office. Although the live register actually fell by 1,293 to 154,944, when adjusted for seasonal factors, it rose by 2,300 to 161,300.
Compared with May last year, there were 21,253 more people "signing on the dole".
The standardised unemployment rate in May was 4.2 per cent, unchanged from last month. But this compares with 3.7 per cent in April 2001, based on the Quarterly National Household Survey.
The Labour Party spokesman on Social and Community Affairs, Mr Tommy Broughan, said the latest live register figures showed that unemployment continued to be a significant problem requiring the urgent attention of the incoming Government.
He said the figures were unlikely to include major closures recently announced, such as Selectron in Clonshaugh in Dublin, Ardagh/Irish Glass Bottle in Ringsend, Ericsson in Athlone and Dell in Limerick.
"The live register is likely to climb again when the full impact of these redundancies are felt," said Mr Broughan.
"Unfortunately, the Government seems to be making little or no effort to save existing jobs and the number of announcements of new investment appears to have slowed significantly over recent months.
In addition, the Programme for Government contains few proposals to deal with ongoing unemployment and the decision of the Government to make major cuts in the community employment [CE\] schemes places further obstacles in the way of those trying to re-enter the workforce."
The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU) also criticised the decision to reduce funding for CE projects and singled it out as one of the reasons behind the rise in the live register.
"The INOU is currently campaigning for the Government to halt and reverse its cuts to CE projects because the reductions go far beyond what is agreed in the PPF [Programme for Prosperity and Fairness\] and are causing real hardship to those who depend on CE projects.
"For the last month, we have been highlighting the fact that the cuts were being imposed with no new alternative labour market programme being given to the unemployed," said Mr Eric Conroy, general secretary of the INOU.
Mr Conroy said the latest seasonally adjusted figures made "grim reading".
"While the total unemployment figure is down on last month, the seasonally adjusted figures show a monthly increase of 1.4 per cent and an annual increase of 15 per cent," he said.
IBEC's director of economic affairs, Mr Brian Geoghegan, said the latest rise in the live register figures came at a "fragile time" for the economy.
"We've lost competitiveness by comparison with last year," he said. "There are clearly some losses in employment terms over the year. We do need to take stock of where we are in terms of competitiveness and expectations on the wage front, and IBEC would be very strongly expressing that view over the coming months."
