Unemployment in the State was at a three-year high on 4.6 per cent during the first quarter of the year according to data from the Central Statistics Office.
The Quarterly National Household Survey - the most reliable measure of unemployment - found there were 84,900 people unemployed at the end of March 2003, an increase of 4,900 compared with the same period in 2002.
Seasonally adjusted, the total climbed by 1,500 pushing unemployment to its highest level since early 2000.
The survey noted that the labour force increased by 31,600 to 1,857,000. The male participation rate eased slightly to 70.4 per cent while female participation in the labour force rose two points to 48.9 per cent.
Male unemployment was 5 per cent, higher than female unemployment which was at 4 per cent during the first quarter.
However, the report also noted that overall employment grew by 26,500 or 1.5 per cent to 1,772,000 in the year to the first quarter of 2003.
The public sector was entirely responsible for this increase with the education, health, public administration and defence sectors the main contributors.
The agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors showed a decline of 7,400.
On a regional basis employment increased in all areas except Dublin which saw an increase of 3,800 in the number of unemployed during the first quarter of the year.
The CSO also provided a comparative study of Irish employment levels and those of other EU countries. Based on data for the second quarter of 2002 Ireland's employment level grew by 1.9 per cent compared with an EU average of just 0.7 per cent.
