The manufacturing sector accounted for more than 40 per cent of all redundancies reported to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in the first two months of this year.

Records released yesterday show that of the 4,264 redundancies recorded in January and February, 1,865 came among manufacturing companies.

The numbers suggest that the sector, which in 2002 provided 10,000 out of the 25,000 redundancies recorded across the economy, is preparing for another lean year.

Research issued earlier this week by NCB suggested that the sector suffered a fifth successive month of shrinkage in February.

Yesterday's data show that engineering and metal manufacturing companies were hit hardest in January and February, contributing 1,181 redundancies, or 28 per cent, to the total. Retail and wholesale companies were also shown to have been under pressure in the first two months, with 632 layoffs reported within "distributive trades".

Economists have predicted that the retail sector could fall prey to heavier job losses in coming months as consumer spending slows progressively over the course of the year.

Heavy job losses were also apparent in the financial sector over the first two months, with 630 of the reported redundancies in January and February coming from banking, finance and insurance companies.

The latest figures on the sector to be released by the Central Statistics Office show that the number of people employed in banking, building societies and insurance fell by 1,700 in the year ending in September, 2002.

Most of the job losses were recorded in banks and building societies.

The Department notes that its records relate to proposed rather than actual redundancies.