There was a 47% increase in the number of notified redundancies last month compared the same month last year, according to new figures from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
About a quarter of the notified redundancies were in the construction sector with a similar proportion related to the manufacturing sector.
However almost 40% of the notified redundancies during March were services sector jobs.
The new figures mean that more than 11,000 redundancies have been reported to the Department between January and April of this year.
This is 27% higher that it was during same four months of last year.
The new figures are consistent with the underlying trend of rising unemployment reflected in April's live register figures.
They are also in keeping with other recent labour market data including an 18% reduction in the job vacancies reported to FÁS in the year to April.
There has also been a 33% reduction in the number of new apprentices registering with FÁS so far this year.
Unemployment rate stays steady in April
Separately, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show a very small decrease in the number of people signing on the Live Register in April.
The seasonally adjusted Live Register total decreased by 200 from 199,900 to 199,700. This compares to an increase of 12,000 in March.
The CSO says the wide variation in the monthly change was due to the early timing of Easter this year.
The unemployment rate was steady at 5.5% in April, unchanged from the previous month.
However, the figures show the level of male unemployment continuing to rise strongly.
An additional 2,100 men were added to the Live Register during the month of March and the number of men unemployed nationally has now risen by more than 35% over the past year.
Brian Cowen's constituency of Laois-Offaly has been the hardest hit by the sharp rise in male unemployment with the number of men on the dole up by 84% in Portlaoise and by 56% in Tullamore over the past 12 months.
For the country as a whole, the figures show unemployment has risen by 41,300 since this time last year and men accounted for increase 81% of that.
