Ireland's unemployment rate inched up to 4.4% in April from a revised 4.1% in March, data from the Central Statistics Office showed on Wednesday. The provisional figure for March had been 4.3%.

A survey of Irish manufacturing activity released with the AIB S&P Global manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) earlier on Wednesday showed that staffing numbers stagnated in April due to sluggish demand, ending a three-month stretch of modest job creation. (Reporting by Graham Fahy; Editing by Alison Williams)