New figures from the Central Statistics Office shows that unemployment rose by 121,000 in the last 12 months. That is a jump of 71% - the largest increase ever recorded.
Today's Live Register figures confirm that the current shock to the Irish labour market is the worst the country has ever experienced.
The figures show the numbers on the dole rose by almost 23,000 in December alone, the largest monthly increase in unemployment on record.
It brought the unemployment total to 291,363. This is an increase of 71% or 121,000 unemployed people in just a year.
The figures show that the number of men on the dole has risen by 83% while the number of women is up by 50% compared with December 2007. This means that there are now twice as many men on the dole as women.
CSO also calculates that the unemployment rate in Ireland has now soared to 8.3% in December from 4.9% in January. This is the highest in 11 years and the pace of the rise has never been witnessed before.
The Live Register total also includes 38,000 casual and part-time workers who are entitled to job seekers benefit or allowances for the days they are unemployed.
The total number of people on the Live Register stand at just under 300,000 and it looks certain to breach 300,000 next month. The Live Register went over 300,000 only once before - January 1993 when it stood at 302,179.
FÁS economist Brian McCormick says that evidence that the rise in the Live Register is being driven by the slowdown in the construction sector comes from the latest redundancy figures which show lay-offs in the sector up almost 250% in 2008 compared to 2007.
He also says that the number of vacancies notified to FÁS fell by a record 141,000 in 2007 to 96,000 in 2008 - down 32%. Apprentice starts were also down 44% in 2008 to just under 4,000 compared with almost 7,000 the previous year.
'Should the current rate of acceleration persist then it is inevitable that the employment rate will reach at least 12% over the course of the year,' commented Mr McCormick.
