The seasonally adjusted live register of people claiming unemployment benefit or assistance rose by 700 in April to 158,200.
The rise was enough to push the standardised monthly unemployment rate back up to 4.3 per cent from 4.2 per cent in March, when the live register dropped by 300 people.
When not adjusted for seasonal factors, the total number of people signing on actually fell by 1,600 month-on-month in April to 154,300, compared with a decrease of 3,500 in March and a monthly fall of 900 in April 2006.
In the 12 months to April 2007, there was a fall of 247 in the unadjusted live register, compared with an unadjusted increase of 326 in the year to March.
Bloxham Stockbrokers economist Alan McQuaid said the picture in the labour market was one of underlying strength, despite some high-profile job losses since the start of the year.
In the first four months of the year, the number of people claiming unemployment benefits averaged 157,100, which is 400 lower than the average number of people signing on during the first four months of 2006. Davy Stockbrokers has said it expects the live register to breach the 160,000 mark by mid-summer due to an expected downturn in the construction sector.
The latest employment and vacancies survey from Fás and the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) showed that 10 per cent of construction firms reported vacancies in March, down from 13 per cent in February. However, there has been a jump in vacancies in the services sector from 7 to 23 per cent. Mr McQuaid added that the live register figures for both March and April can be distorted depending on when Easter falls in a given year. The ESRI forecasts an overall rise in jobs of 78,000 this year, while the Central Bank predicts that there will be 62,000 more people employed.
Mr McQuaid said even if the eventual rise in jobs was the lower of the projections, it would still be a healthy rise.
"The bottom line, in our view, is that the Irish economy remains strong and we will see another very positive rise in net employment this year, though maybe not as much as in the past couple of years," he said.
