The Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed has said the increase in the Live Register announced today disproves claims that Ireland has full employment.
Figures released by the Central Statistics Office showed that the number of people claiming unemployment benefits increase by 3,100 last month when seasonal factors were taken into account.
Responding to the figures, INOU spokesperson June Tinsley said they showed that joblessness was still a problem.
"The increases in the Live Register do show that Ireland has not attained the full employment that other economic commentators have frequently said that we've achieved," she said.
"At the moment, there's a sense of complacency out there that Ireland has such a low unemployment rate and our feeling would be that there's still 159,000 people claiming an unemployment payment.
"They want to get into the labour market and there needs to be supports to help them do that."