More than 2,000 people were made redundant every month last year, new figures revealed today.
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment said 25,459 people - 15,632 men and 9,827 women - lost their jobs in 2007.
The highest number were recorded in Dublin city and county, where 10,844 positions were lost. In Cork 2,707 redundancies were made, with 1,250 in Limerick, 1,172 in Galway and 1,147 in Kildare.
The only county to have less than 100 redundancies was Leitrim where 87 posts were lost.
The figures, from the redundancy payments section, include workers forced out of employment and those who opted to take a retirement package.
The Department of Trade said job cuts per sector - calculated at the end of November - showed 3,445 losses across the building and civil engineering trades.
Eircom, Waterford Crystal and Coca Cola were among the state's biggest firms to confirm job losses. The telecoms company said it would cut 900 positions over the next three years; the drinks giant cut 250 positions in Drogheda, and almost 500 are due to go at Waterford Crystal's plant in Kilbarry.
The south west of the county suffered one of the biggest blows with thousands of jobs lost between Thomson Scientific and Healthcare, Limerick; FCI in Fermoy; Motorola in Mahon; and Pfizer. A further 500 jobs went at the Abbott Laboratories plant in Galway.