REDUNDANCIES IN 2008 are running 21 per cent ahead of last year, with 7,968 official redundancies recorded in the first three months of the year, new figures from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment show.
There were 2,341 job losses in March, an increase of 5.7 per cent on the same month last year, according to figures under the State redundancies scheme.
The increase is substantially lower than the 80.4 per cent rise in redundancies recorded in February on the corresponding month in 2007. That large increase was due to a substantial drop in jobs lost during February 2007, when monthly redundancies were at their lowest level last year.
The construction, manufacturing and services sectors have endured the most redundancies so far this year. The largest number of job losses in March was in the services sector, where 699 people lost their jobs, bringing redundancies in the sector to 2,320 for the first three months of the year.
However, the manufacturing industry has endured the highest number of job losses since the start of the year. Some 602 jobs in all manufacturing sectors were lost in March, bringing redundancies in the industry to 2,379 for the first three months of the year.
The building and civil engineering industry continued to shed jobs in March, reflecting the slowdown in the housing sector.
Some 600 job losses in the construction industry were recorded last month, bringing the total jobs lost in the sector during the first three months of the year to 2,022.
