The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed has said Live Register figures, published today, underline the size of the challenge facing new State initiatives aimed at tackling unemployment.

The INOU criticised the Government's proposal to penalise unemployed people who do not engage with advice and training.

It said State agencies who fail to deliver these services should also be punished.



There was a seasonally-adjusted increase of 1,500 people signing on in July to reach 447,900, according to figures from the CSO.

The headline figure, which does not take seasonal changes into account, rose by more than 12,000 from June to 470,284.

Compared with July last year, however, the headline figure is only marginally higher.

The number of long-term unemployed has continued to grow at a significant pace.



The number of long-term claimants increased by 45,508 in the year to July, bringing to 40.4% the proportion of claimants that have now been on the Live Register for one year or more.

In July 2010, long-term claimants made up 31% of the total Live Register.

The Live Register includes some part-time and seasonal workers and does not measure unemployment.

Meanwhile, separate figures from the Government show that the number of redundancies in July fell by 10% compared with the same month last year.