THE number of people out of work rose by 800 last month, according to the seasonally adjusted figures, published yesterday by the Central Statistics Office.

The number of people on the live register at the end of last month was 288,375. Seasonally adjusted the total was 285,500, the highest level since March 1994.

The figure is 8,300 up on the" same figure for July 1995. While the overall number of people registered rose by 800 last month, the number of people under 25 on the register fell by 2,000.

The seasonally adjusted, standardised unemployment rate at the end of July was 12.6%, the highest rate since January of last year.

Opposition politicians, the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) and the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed (INOU), criticised recent Government comments that the live register was an unreliable indicator.

Fianna Fail deputy leader and spokeswoman on enterprise and employment, Mrs Mary O'Rourke, said the latest figures signalled a "fundamental flaw" in the Government's employment policies.

"Given the growth levels being claimed by the Government one would have expected a significant drop last month," she said.

"No doubt the Government will once again try to blame the live register and claim the July figures are inaccurate. The live register remains as the only regular indicator of trends, whereas the labour force survey comes out just once a year.

If the unemployment situation was really improving, both indicators would be moving in the same direction, Mrs O'Rourke said.

She called for an "immediate review" of the Government's employment policies following "these shocking figures".

As many as nine different ministers had responsibility for unemployment issues. Yet, nobody was in charge and nobody was ensuring that the Government's policy was properly focused, she said.

The leader of the Progressive Democrats, Ms Mary Harney, said the coalition had added some 10,000 people to the live register since it, came to power just over 18 months ago.

She said the poor quality of many new jobs meant it was now, possible to be both employed and unemployed at the same time. This factor explained much of the difference between the Labour Force Survey measure of unemployment and the live register.

Ms Kathleen Lynch, the Democratic Left TD, said the forthcoming Budget must consolidate and expand the mechanisms developed by this Government to focus resources and jobs on the marginalised communities in urban Ireland.

The chairman of the INOU, Mr Paul Billings, said the unemployment situation was "entering into its worst crisis for years.

This week the Department of Finance attempted to completely discredit the live register by saying that it was not a count of the numbers unemployed but rather an indication of the number of people on social welfare," Mr Billings said.

"If the Government thinks that by ignoring the live register unemployment will go away, then we must seriously question its ability to run this economy.

The NYCI criticised recent comments by the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Bruton, "dismissing the live register figures".

"We are now living in an age where some young people may never experience employment in their entire lives", he said.