Unemployment rate now at 12.7%

Taoiseach Brian Cowen has insisted that the only way to improve the employment situation is to get competitiveness back into the economy.

Live Register figures have shown an increase of 5,800 in the number of people signing on.

The estimated rate of unemployment is now 12.7%, up from 12.5% in December.

Live Register figures for January published this morning show an increase of just over 13,300 people signing on compared with December.

The number of people signing on in January was 436,936.

When seasonal factors are taken into account the increase for January is 5,800, bringing the seasonally adjusted figure to 434,700.

The seasonally adjusted increase was the biggest since August last year, after a few months in which the figure appeared to be stabilising.

Women accounted for 3,400 of the monthly increase, with 2,400 more men joining the dole queues.

The annual increase in the Live Register slowed, however, as the headline figure for January was 34% higher than in the same month last year, compared with a 46% increase in the 12 months to December.

The figures were criticised by Opposition leaders in the Dáil this morning.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the figures were 'devastating', and - combined with yesterday's Exchequer returns - amounted to a 'litany of despair from a government that has failed to put any strategy in place'.

He said that the real figure if the valve of emigration was not open would be 500,000 out of work.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore pointed out that 319 people had lost their jobs every day since the New Year, and that one out of every three young men aged between 21 and 24 was on the dole.

CSO distances itself from leak

The Central Statistics Office has distanced itself from leaked figures on the Live Register, which showed the increase in numbers signing on was 8,000 instead of the real figure of 5,800.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen used a figure of 8,000 in the Dáil, which was based on a briefing to Government from the Department of Social and Family Affairs.

The CSO said: 'The figures widely quoted in the media today and yesterday regarding the Live Register totals for January were not sourced from the CSO.

'In line with its general release policy, the CSO does not pre-release the Live Register figures to anybody before the day of publication.

'The CSO was not involved in (and did not in any way facilitate) the unofficial release of figures yesterday - indeed we actively discourage any such practice.'