THE UNEMPLOYMENT rate has been revised sharply upwards in figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) yesterday. In the final quarter of 2010, the seasonally adjusted rate of joblessness was 14.7 per cent.

This is more than a full percentage point higher than previously estimated.

The unemployment rate was up from the 13.7 per cent recorded three months earlier, according to the Quarterly National Household Survey.

This was the largest quarter-on-quarter increase in joblessness in 18 months.

The last time unemployment reached the current level was in April 1994.

Prof Philip O’Connell, a labour market economist at the Economic and Social Research Institute, described the figures “as significantly worse than expected”.

The data also showed the number of people in employment continued to shrink in the fourth quarter of 2010, with 16,200 fewer people at work compared to the third quarter.

In relation to the all-time peak in the numbers at work, which was reached exactly three years earlier, a net decline in total employment of 317,500 jobs has been recorded. This amounts to more than one in seven jobs.

The pattern revealed yesterday suggests that an end to the shake-out in the labour market is not yet at hand, with further large job losses being recorded across most sectors, whether compared to the previous quarter or the same quarter in 2009.

The long-term unemployment rate increased from 4.1 per cent of the workforce in the final quarter of 2009 to 7.3 per cent in the same period in 2010.

Those out of work for more than one year accounted for 51.5 per cent of total unemployment in the fourth quarter of last year. This compares with just one-third one year ago and one-fifth two years ago.

According to the CSO, foreign nationals continue to be most affected by job losses. Of the 64,500 fall in employment between the final quarters of 2010 and 2009, 35,000 were accounted for by foreign nationals. The figures suggest that most foreign nationals losing their jobs left the State – the increase in unemployment among this group over the same period was just 1,700.

The Irish Small Medium Enterprises Association described the figures as “shocking”. The organisation’s chief executive, Mark Fielding, urged the Government to implement pre-election commitments.

“The Government has committed to a jobs fund within its first 100 days in office. It is vital that this commitment is adhered to and that a programme for jobs recovery is implemented, with a specific emphasis on sustaining enterprise and addressing long term unemployment,” he said.

Paul Sweeney, economic adviser to the Irish Congress of Trades Unions, described the rise in long-term unemployment as “extremely worrying” and said that the figures were “concrete proof that austerity is not working and must be abandoned by the new Government”.