Women and young people are bearing the brunt of the ongoing rise in unemployment, according to the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed.
Twice as many women as men joined the dole queues in recent months, in which the unemployment rate increased to 4.78 per cent, its highest level in almost four years.
Mr Eric Conroy, the general secretary of the INOU, said the gender imbalance reflected the closure of a number of small, service-type companies which had not made media headlines.
The figures for young people signing on the dole were also disturbing, he said. "The number of people on the live register aged under 25 has increased by over 40 per cent in the last two years.
"This could lead to long-term unemployment for many young people or the prospect of emigration as they find new job opportunities hard to find in a depressed labour market."
Mr Conroy said the Government must act to stem the rising level of unemployment and find jobs for people "being made redundant all around the country".
"The Tánaiste's recent long-term initiative on high-knowledge jobs in the economy is welcome, but does not go far enough and action is needed in the short term. We need to be creating jobs at all levels of the economy, not just at the high-skilled end of the spectrum," he said.
It was also unacceptable, he claimed, that places on active labour market schemes were being cut at a time of rising unemployment. These schemes provided work and training opportunities for people who were unemployed.
Seasonally adjusted unemployment rose by 2,300 in July to reach 178,500, leaving the unemployment rate poised to top five per cent in the coming months. The actual increase in July was 7,600, on top of an 11,800 rise in June.
The seasonally-adjusted total has increased by 13,400 over the past year and is 38,500 higher than in July 2001. Since the end of last year, the number of women signing on has risen by 8,100, compared to 5,200 men. An analysis by Davy Stockbrokers suggested that a contributory factor to this may be that fewer part-time jobs are available.