High-profile closures such as 3Com left September with the sharpest increase this year in the monthly tally of people facing redundancy.
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment released figures yesterday showing that 2,563 people were told last month they were losing their jobs.
The figures represent the number of redundancies reported to the Department during September. They include 640 jobs that will be lost with the end of manufacturing at 3Com in Dublin, and 315 posts set to go with the closure of electrical components producer Schneider in Co Kildare.
The fate of both facilities was announced last month.
The figure marks a 61.5 per cent increase in the number of redundancies notified to the Department in September 2002, the biggest year-on-year increase to date in 2003.
This was the fourth such increase in a row, while notified redundancies have been up in five out of the nine months of the year so far. September was also the third worst month of 2003, behind June and July, with 2,703 and 2,601 respectively.
The total notified redundancies for the first nine months stands at 20,150, a 4.6 per cent increase on the 19,267 total at the end of September 2002.
The news follows this week's report from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) that the number of industrial jobs in the Republic fell by 10,600 in the year to the end of June.
Electrical goods manufacturing accounted for 3,500 or one-third of these losses, but the decline in industrial employment hit most sectors, according to the CSO figures.
Reacting to the notified redundancy figures last night, Small Firms' Association (SFA) director Mr Pat Delaney said the 20,150 total was further proof that employment was in "free fall". He added that 503 jobs a week were now being lost.
Mr Delaney said it was the third negative report on employment and competitiveness published in the State this week.
He pointed out that, along with the notified redundancy and industrial employment figures, the CSO reported that Irish wages were 9 per cent higher than the euro-zone average.
"We need to stop looking at the world through rose-tinted glasses and take notice of what is happening under our noses," he declared.
"The increase in September over the previous year was a dramatic 61.5 per cent and there is no sign of this trend abating.
"Every 15,000 extra people unemployed cost the Exchequer €100 million in social welfare payments."
