Number of redundancies doubles in seven years

REDUNDANCY is increasingly becoming an everyday experience in Ireland with the manufacturing sector bearing the brunt of the losses.

Seven years ago, 10,800 people were made redundant but this figure increased to 23,684 last year — a rise of 120%.

Although the numbers of people in work rose from 1.7 million to 2 million during the same period — 2000 to 2006 — the numbers in manufacturing fell more than 32,000.