Unemployment rose by 7,500 in November, the largest monthly increase on record. The seasonally adjusted total of people signing on the dole is 154,100, the highest figure since June 2000. The unadjusted total of 147,100 is the highest figure since August 2000. Normally the numbers signing on fall in November as businesses prepare for the Christmas rush.

This is the fifth time in the past six months that unemployment has risen and the figure seems set to rise further. Besides seasonal factors, the full impact of 700 lay-offs at Tara Mines has yet to be reflected in the live register and Aer Lingus hopes to shed 2,000 jobs in the new year.

Both the Labour Party and the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU) predicted yesterday that unemployment would join health as a major issue in the general election.

The Labour spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment, Mr Tommy Broughan said: "Ordinary working people throughout the State are now paying the price for the Government's complete mismanagement of the economy." Having "inherited one of the healthiest economies in the developed world", the Government was "presiding over a situation where unemployment is back on the political agenda".

The INOU's welfare-to-work co-ordinator, Ms Noeleen Hartigan, said the organisation was receiving calls daily from people about to lose their jobs. Many were working couples who had never been unemployed before and were shocked to find only one of them would receive unemployment benefits. The other would be treated as an adult dependent.

The INOU called on unemployed people to make jobs and welfare rates a key issue in the election.

The Fine Gael spokesman, Mr Charles Flanagan, said Ms Harney was presiding "over the biggest increase in recent years in the live register figures". More than 15,000 people had received redundancy notices this year.

The Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern, said there were still 107,000 more people at work than when the Government came to office. He attributed much of the live register increase to short-term lay-offs. But he conceded: "We must nevertheless realise the effect that the downturn in our economy is having."

Ms Harney said job losses were disappointing but had to be seen in the context of a global economic downturn. "There are 49,000 more people at work now than this time last year and more than 300,000 more at work than when the Government came to office," she said.

Over a third of the rise in people signing on was in the south-east, reflecting lay-offs at companies such as Waterford Crystal and Dungarvan Crystal. Dublin and the mid-east region were the next worst affected regions, accounting for almost another third of the total.

Tourism, construction, mining and textiles were the hardest hit sectors. The monthly increase of 10,100 in the live register is the highest on Central Statistics Office records, which go back to 1967.