Unemployment increased in January for the first time in seven months. The seasonally adjusted total rose by 1,200 to 171,000, leading to a renewed opposition attack on the Government's economic record.
The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, yesterday sharply rejected claims that a rise in unemployment last month suggests she is "wandering aimlessly" in the midst of a deepening jobs crisis.
Fine Gael and Labour seized on fresh live register data from the Central Statistics Office to accuse Ms Harney of presiding over a crumbling labour market.
With a standardised jobless rate of 4.7 per cent, it is apparent that some sectors of the economy - particularly manufacturing industries - are sinking into crisis, said Labour finance spokesman Mr Brendan Howlin.
He said: "The Tánaiste continues to wander around aimlessly in the midst of a jobs crisis and offers no practical or realistic strategies or solutions."
Ms Harney dismissed assertions that the Government was doing nothing to shore up waning competitiveness. "The economy continues to be one of the most dynamic in Europe," said a spokesman, adding that more people were now at work than at any time in the State's history.
The overall level of unemployment rose by 3,925 people last month, which was 1,700 more than would normally be expected due to seasonal trends. In the year to January, unemployment has increased by 3,828, or 2.2 per cent. Unemployment increased in all regions last month, with the largest percentage rise being 5.3 per cent in Dublin.
At 4.7 per cent, the unemployment rate remains low by international standards and was up just fractionally from the 4.6 per cent a year earlier. The Government said the results vindicated its jobs policy, with the number out of work half what it was when they took office in 1997.
But Mr Howlin said the data indicated the Republic was locked in an upward spiral of job cuts.
He added: "These figures fail to tell the full picture, however. They do not include the series of lay-offs announced in Munster over the last 10 days."
Fine Gael enterprise spokesman Mr Phil Hogan claimed the Government's "anti-business" policies were damaging the labour market.
He said: "This Government is bad for business. It has imposed unnecessary charges and stealth taxes, and has done nothing about spiralling costs and uncompetitiveness. The private sector is waiting for the Tánaiste to take the initiative in tackling the problem of high-cost employment."
The Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed said the figures indicated a "bleak outlook" for 2004.
Mr Robbie Kelleher, head of research at Davy Stockbrokers, said redundancies announced last year were now filtering into unemployment data.
Redundancies of 27,700 last year were the highest in 19 years and figures published this week showed that notified redundancies in January at 2,288 are 5 per cent up on the same month last year.
