The live register in June jumped by the biggest number since December 1995, with 23,412 more people now claiming unemployment benefit than this time last year.

The standardised unemployment rate in June was 4.3 per cent compared with 3.7 per cent in April 2001, based on the Quarterly National Household Survey.

The latest figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) yesterday reveal the number signing on increased by 9,333 in June to 164,277. The seasonally adjusted monthly figure shows an increase of 2,300 to 163,600.

All of the State's regions saw a rise in the numbers signing on, but the west was worst hit, posting an increase of 7.9 per cent, followed by the mid-west (7.5 per cent) and the midland region (6.7 per cent). The numbers signing on in Dublin jumped by 5.8 per cent.

Employers' group IBEC said the latest rise underlined the need for restraint in wage increases. It said higher wages were undermining competitiveness and, ultimately, costing jobs.

Mr Aebhric McGibney, IBEC chief economist, said as well as the live register numbers, figures on redundancies for the first six months of the year did not augur well for the State's jobs market.

He said 13,800 people were made redundant in the first six months of the year, an increase of 53 per cent on the same period last year, when 9,018 workers lost their jobs.

"People have to accept the futility of a wage-price spiral," he said.

"It happened in the late 1970s and early 1980s, inflation went out of control, wages tried to catch up. . . and unemployment suffered. What's happened is that we have lost a little bit of competitiveness. And when that happens the first thing firms do is let go casual workers, then contract workers and finally permanent staff, and that's what has started to happen."

Opposition parties said the June increase was unacceptable.

Mr Tommy Broughan TD, Labour party spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment, said the June increase showed unemployment remained a significant social and economic problem.

"If this rate continues, unemployment would be back over the 200,000 level by the end of the year," he said.

"Unfortunately, the Government seems to have abandoned any serious effort to save existing jobs and the number of announcements of new investment appears to have slowed significantly over recent months."

Mr Phil Hogan TD, Fine Gael's spokesman for enterprise, trade and employment, said corrective action needed to be taken by the Government.

"It is very worrying that there is no plan of action being proposed by the Government to maintain our competitiveness after five years of successful growth in our economy," he said.

Meanwhile, in the construction industry, the average weekly earnings for clerical and operative workers increased by 10 per cent in the 12 months to March 2002, according to the latest figures from the CSO.

Weekly earnings rose to €618.53 from €562.38 a year earlier.

There was an increase of 11.1 per cent in the hourly rate of pay, while hours worked per week fell to 44 from 44.5.

Weekly earnings for adult unskilled workers rose by 10.3 per cent from €556.95 to €614.08 and the number of hours worked per week fell to 45.6 from 46.3.

Skilled operatives saw their weekly earnings increase by 7.1 per cent from €664.12 to €710.97 and the number of hours worked per week fell from 44.7 to 44.6.