Redundances continue to run ahead of the 2005 level despite some improvement in April, accoridng to figures released yesterday.

The total number of redundancies recorded by the Government for the first four months of the year was 7,723, a 12 per cent jump on the same period in 2005, when the figure was 6,893.

But the statistics released yesterday by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment show that the number of job losses in April was down to 1,838 from 2,567, a decrease of 28.4 per cent.

The worst hit sector during April was services, where 520 jobs were lost. But manufacturing continued to suffer, with 389 workers being laid off.

The least badly hit activity was energy and water with just six redundancies while the chemical industry recorded 25 job losses.

In four months to the end of April, services has again been the sector to suffer most with 2,501 workers losing their jobs, while 1490 manufacturing employees were made redundant during the same time period.

Energy and water was also the best peformer over the four-month period with 174 redundancies, while the chemical industry was second best with 247 job losses.

Cork was the worst-hit county in April, with the loss of 270 jobs. Dublin 2 was the next worst with 168 lay offs and Longford third with 154 job losses.