The Live Register rose by 600 in seasonally adjusted terms last month, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) revealed yesterday.

The total Live Register for May 2006 now stands at 152,560, 1,800 higher than one year ago, but this overstates the level of unemployment as it includes temporary and part-time workers. According to the latest measure of unemployment, the Quarterly National Household survey, the rate of unemployment stood at 4.4 per cent in February.

While the Live Register has risen by 1,200 since then in seasonally adjusted terms, the unemployment rate remains at 4.4 per cent according to the CSO. Bloxham economist Alan McQuaid noted that the seasonally-adjusted monthly increase of 600 comprised mostly males. He suggested the year-on-year rise in the register, despite broadly positive labour market developments over the period, was probably explained by the influx of foreign nationals looking for work.

Ruairí Quinn, Labour party spokesman on enterprise trade and employment, accused the government policies of putting jobs at risk by pursuing inflationary policies.

"Coupled with a huge increase in the numbers affected by collective redundancies - already heading for a 10-year high if current trends continue - the overall trends are worrying," he said.

"We must hope the Government will not submit to the temptation of an inflationary set of policies as they approach a general election," he added.

Unemployment also remained stable across developed economies, new figures revealed yesterday. According to figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - which represents 30 of the world's leading economies - the average rate of unemployment in the OECD was 6.2 per cent in April, the same as in March but 0.5 per cent lower than a year earlier.