A total of 2,082 people lost their jobs in July, the latest figures show. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment said the figure was 6.4 per cent down on that recorded during the same month last year. However, it was ahead of the 1,908 recorded in June, according to the department's statistics.

Total redundancies to date in 2006 stand at 13,928, 1.8 per cent ahead of the same period last year.

The cumulative total of job losses has been running ahead of 2005 since the start of the year. However, the monthly totals show that fewer jobs were lost in April, May, June and July 2006 than in the same months last year.

Last month, 78 jobs were lost when Green Isle closed a fish processing plant in Boyle, Co Roscommon. Detailed figures for June released by the department show that the manufacturing sector was worst hit, with 538 jobs lost, followed by the services sector, with 497 layoffs.

Distribution was next on the list with 250 job losses, while building and civil engineering, currently the biggest employer in the State, had 166 job redundancies.

In the first six months of 2006, there were 3,173 jobs lost in manufacturing. Services suffered most with 3,280 job losses, and distribution held third position at 1,208. There were 1,138 jobs lost in the building and civil engineering sector.

The figures for June show 1,165 men lost their jobs that month as opposed to 743 women. That breakdown is also reflected in the statistics for the first six months of the year, which show that 7,242 men lost their jobs against 4,604 women.