More than 3,000 people joined the live register in March, sending the numbers claiming the dole higher for the first time in eight months.

The rise sent the unemployment rate up fractionally to 4.3 per cent from 4.2 per cent January and February, according to seasonally adjusted figures published yesterday by the Central Statistics Office.

The increase was tilted disproportionately to female workers, who accounted for 2,200 of the seasonally-adjusted rise.

On an annual basis, the 159,000 people singing on in March was 11,300 fewer than in the same month last year.

Bloxham economist Alan McQuaid said the early Easter would have impacted on the figures. He was confident the unemployment rate, still less than half the euro-zone average, would fall back again in April.

Davy economist Robbie Kelleher noted that the "more reliable short-term comparison" was the quarterly change in the register. On that basis, the numbers in the first three months of 2005 are 2 per cent below the previous three months on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Both economists said other recent indicators showed that the Irish labour market was firm.

On an unadjusted basis, the live register numbers fell by 974 in March to 157,675, down 11,205 on the year. This compared with a monthly drop of 1,900 signing on in February and 4,200 in March last year.

The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed welcomed the annual fall-off in those signing on [ on an unadjusted basis] but said the monthly rise was " a matter of concern".

It said there was "no room for the Government to be complacent".

Fine Gael's Pat Breen said the figures were "further evidence of how the Government was damaging the manufacturing and small business sectors".