Some 2,600 people were told to prepare for redundancy last month, according to figures from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

The monthly total was the second-largest so far this year, and represents an 11 per cent increase on July 2002.

The rise follows an annual jump of 20.9 per cent in the previous month. It is likely to be of particular concern to the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, who has established a special strategy group to review the State's enterprise and employment policy.

Almost 15,500 redundancies have been reported so far this year, down 4.3 per cent on the same period last year. The rate of decline is lessening as the year progresses, with June showing a 6.9 per cent fall and May recording a 12.3 per cent drop.

Manufacturing continued to dominate the figures in July, with almost 40 per cent of the total drawn from within the sector. When the first seven months are taken as a whole, manufacturing firms accounted for 42 per cent of all proposed redundancies.

This trend was also evident in official economic figures released last week, which revealed that industrial production showed little or no growth in the first quarter of this year. The manufacturing sector is known to be struggling against a confluence of pressures including high wage costs, spiralling insurance bills and euro strength, which is making Irish products more expensive abroad.

Dublin provided close to half of all the redundancies notified in July, with Cork seeing the second-largest total - 914 redundancies were notified in Dublin, while 333 jobs were under threat in Cork.

Donegal was also badly affected, with 235 redundancies notified. Employers in Meath informed 193 staff that they could be made redundant.

Males outnumbered females in the redundancy figures, with males accounting for two-thirds of the July total.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has attached an overall health warning to the numbers, noting that they contain "limitations" and could include redundancy notifications that may not lead to job losses by official measure.

The figures may not, furthermore, include lay-offs involving short-term workers or employees who are engaged in legal dispute with their employer.

They also exclude employees with less than two years' service, workers aged less than 16 or workers of pensionable age.