Economic uncertainty led to an increase in the number of people numbers signing on the Live Register in March to bring the rate of unemployment up to 5.5 per cent.
New figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that an additional 12,000 people signed on last month, bringing the overall number of claimants on the seasonally adjusted Live Register to 199,900.
The numbers signing on the Live Register are the highest since August 1999.
The Live Register saw increases across all regions. The largest percentage rise was in the South-East region (+7.2 per cent) while the smallest percentage increase was in the South-West region (+3.0 per cent).
The number of males claiming unemployment outstripped women by almost 500 with 4,500 new male claimants against 4,007 new female claimants.
In the year to March there was an unadjusted increase of 42,123 (+27 per cent) compared with an unadjusted increase of 30,089 (+18.9 per cent) in the year to February 2008.