The number of jobs lost in the first three months of the year rose by more than a third compared with the same period last year as the decline of the manufacturing sector continues, according to new official figures.

In spite of bullish economic forecasts from private and public sector analysts, figures for "actual redundancies" from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment show that 5,902 people lost their jobs in January-March compared with 4,332 in the same period last year.

While the number of redundancies fell to 1,610 in March from 1,976 in February and 2,316 in January, the number of job losses in March was 58.3 per cent higher than in the same month last year when 1017 jobs were lost.

While the number job losses after the 2002 economic downturn peaked in 2003 before declining in 2004 and 2005, the latest official figures appear in the wake of a spate of redundancy announcements since the start of the year.

However, redundancies from companies such as NEC in Co Meath and Fruit of the Loom and Magee in Co Donegal will not affect this series of figures until later this year when the workers concerned are formally made redundant.

Updated official figures for January and February show that the manufacturing sector was the worst hit by redundancies in that period.

Some 1,341 jobs were lost in metal manufacturing, engineering and other manufacturing sectors. Most of the losses were in the other manufacturing segment, with 1,048 jobs lost in the first two months of the year.

The Department said that some 1,146 jobs were lost in the services sectors in this period, 436 jobs were lost in distributive trades and 362 jobs were lost in building and civil engineering.

Some 2,633 men lost their jobs in the first two months of the year and 1,659 women lost their jobs, the figures show.