The Live Register, which measures the number of people signing on for unemployment assistance and benefit, rose last month to its highest level in over three years.
When adjusted for seasonal factors, there were 173,100 people signing on in April, an increase of just over 9% compared to April of last year and the highest figure since December 1999.
Easter fell in April this year and that means that many part time workers in education and related services would have signed on last month. That explains some of today's big rise in the seasonally adjusted number of people signing on the Live Register.
But it only explains some of the rise. The numbers on the Live Register are now over 9% higher than in April of last year pushing unemployment to 4.6%.
While there have been positive job investments announced recently, big factory closures continue which could see unemployment pushed to the 5.3% rate for this year, forecast by the Government at Budget time. The most recent Quarterly National Household Survey also showed little growth in employment in the private sector.
The Live Register's monthly increase reflected rises in all but two regions. The largest increases were in the mid-east (3.8%) and Dublin (2.8%), while there was no change in the west and a fall (0.3%) in the south-west region.
According to figures released by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment today the number of notified redundancies fell by 26% in April to 1,916, compared to April 2002 (2,592). On a cumulative basis to the end of April, the number of notified redundancies was down 1.6% to 8,136, compared to 8,270 in the year to April 2002.
