The rise in December’s Live Register numbers can be attributed to seasonal factors and the effects of the adverse weather, the Government claimed today.
Minister for Social Protection Éamon Ó Cuív blamed the first rise in four months on temporarily employed people in the educational sector signing on over the holiday period.
Mr Ó Cuív said people who were in full time employment but who did not qualify for holiday pay may have also signed on, while some businesses may have temporarily closed during the holiday period.
He also blamed the adverse weather conditions in December which would have affected certain sectors, such as the construction sector, and expressed confidence that the register would decrease during 2011.
But Fine Gael's Richard Bruton said the latest figures revealed that long-term unemployment rose by a "massive amount" last year.
Mr Bruton said the latest surge in unemployment is almost exclusively among males coming from the trades and general operatives sector, which indicates that the construction sector continues to contract.
"The signs of ongoing emigration are unmistakable, and the problem is growing. Despite rising overall unemployment, the number of young people signing on has fallen. It seems that people with qualifications are the ones leaving the country.
"However, there is also a solid core of people who are out of work, but are not being offered any opportunities. The number of long-term unemployed increased by 60,000 during the year. Men were particularly affected with the number of long-term unemployed males up 63 per cent in the year. Two out of every five men who are on the live register are now long-term unemployed," he said.
Labour’s enterprise spokesman Willie Penrose described the figures as “grim news”, insisting the country was facing a huge challange to undo the huge economic damage done by Fianna Fáil.
“This is the highest end of year figure ever recorded, it is one of the biggest ever increases for December over November, and it marks the nineteenth successive month in which the figures have been over 400,000,” Mr Penrose said.
While the export statistics and the exchequer figures published this week, showed some recovery in the multi-national sector, the Live Register figures show that there is a still a huge problem in the domestic economy and with unemployment levels, he said.