THE NUMBER of redundancies across the country has reached almost 30,000 this year to the end of April, according to figures from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

The total at the end of last month was 27,983, a 153.8 per cent increase on the total at the end of April 2008.

The figures revealed there was a 132.2 per cent rise in redundancies during April, with 7,232 job cuts compared to just 3,114 in April 2008.

During the year men have faced the axe more often than women with 19,397 male employees being made redundant compared to 8,586 female staff. The percentage of women losing their jobs is on the increase, however, and was up from 29 per cent in March to 35 per cent in April. March has proved to be the worst month for lay-offs so far with 162.2 per cent more redundancies than in 2008, but the rate eased somewhat last month.

The figures highlight manufacturing and engineering were hit hard last month with 1,905 job losses, while the building and civil engineering sector suffered 1,601 job cuts. The biggest reduction was in the services sector where 2,570 redundancies were notified to the department.

Reacting to the figures the Irish Small Medium Enterprises Association (Isme), called for an immediate employment action plan.

Isme chief executive Mark Fielding said: “The level of redundancies is frightening, with no evidence of any respite in the near future. The worrying aspect is that there does not seem to be any understanding of the scale of the problem at Government level. All we hear are excuses as to why we are in this mess without any tangible solution.” The redundancy statistics come in a tough week of job cut announcements including the closure of German-owned Amann Industries in Tralee, which will result in the loss of 210 jobs, and pet food manufacturer CD Foods also revealed it will cut 53 full-time jobs.