Men are being forced into part-time work by the recession, new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

The figures, published today in the latest Quarterly National Household Survey, show that the number of men in part-time work is now 143,800 men, an increase of over 20,000 in two years.

The number of women in part-time work has remained more or less static at 302,400 in the third quarter of 2012.

However, there is a big discrepancy between the number of men and women in part-time work who are happy with the number of hours they are working.

Whereas almost half of men in part-time work (46pc) would rather work more hours, only 26pc of women in part-time work would prefer to work more hours.

The new survey also shows that men continue to be far more likely than women to be unemployed and to be long-term unemployed.

Unemployment among men stood at 17.8pc versus 11.5pc for women.

The percentage of unemployed men who were out of work for a year or more stood at 66pc of the total versus 45pc of all women out of work.

In May last year, Finola Bruton said that men were being hit much worse by the recession than women, and that Irish men were being harder hit than their counterparts anywhere else in Europe.

Mrs Bruton made the remarks in her closing comments at a conference she chaired on ‘women, home and work’ organised by The Iona Institute.

She said the Irish education system is failing young men and “has done a much better job preparing young women for the job market”.

This figure was “in sharp contrast to all other European countries, where the rates of unemployment are roughly equal,” Mrs Bruton said.