Fourteen-year High As Unemployment Rises

The number of unemployment benefit claimants signing on in September increased by 500 on the previous month.

This brings the total number out of work in Northern Ireland to 60,900, the highest level since September 1997.

The number of unemployed people, aged 18 to 24, is estimated at 18%, meaning almost one in five cannot find a job.

The Northern Ireland seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, as measured by the Labour Force Survey (LFS), was estimated at 7.6% for the period June - August 2011.

New data today shows this was up from the rate of 7.1% recorded in the previous quarter and was also up from the rate of 7.0% recorded one year ago.

However, the Northern Ireland unemployment rate remained below the UK average rate (8.1%) and was also lower than the European Union (9.5%) and Republic of Ireland (14.5%) rates for July 2011.

Unadjusted estimates for June - August 2011 show that 45.1% of those unemployed in Northern Ireland have been unemployed for one year or more. They also record the unemployment rate for 18-24 year olds at 18.1%.

The seasonally adjusted number of people claiming unemployment related benefits5 stood at 60,900 in September 2011 – up 500 (0.8%) from the previous month.

The latest monthly increase in Northern Ireland (0.8%) compared to a monthly rise of 1.1% in the UK as a whole. Over the year, the Northern Ireland claimant count has increased by 5.2% (3,000), compared to an increase of 8.8% in the UK.

The annual increase in Northern Ireland was the lowest among the 12 UK regions.

Seasonally adjusted estimates for the period June - August 2011 showed that there were 799,000 people in employment in Northern Ireland.

This estimate was down 0.4% on the previous quarter, but up 2.7% over the year.

The number of working age persons that were economically inactive increased by 4,000 (1.4%) over the quarter and the corresponding working age economic inactivity rate increased to 27.0% (in June - August 2011) and was the highest rate among the UK regions.

An estimated 32% of the economically inactive of working age in Northern Ireland were sick/disabled, 29% were students, 21% were looking after the family/home, 11% were retired and 6% were 'other' reason.

There were 65 confirmed redundancies notified in September 2011, compared to 93 in August 2011 and 191 in September 2010. There has been a 34% decrease in the number of confirmed redundancies over the last year to 30th September 2011 - 1,756 compared to 2,653 in the previous year.

Sinn Fein's Conor Murphy later commented: "While there is no quick fix to the issue of unemployment there are measures that could be pursued more rigorously.

"While the official figures show a further increase of 500 unemployed I believe that the real increase is much higher. For instance these figures do not take account of those who chose to emigrate rather than sign on the dole.

"Instead of extolling the fact that numbers here may be less percentage-wise than those in Britain or the South, Enterprise Minister, Arlene Foster needs to focus on means of reversing the upward spiral in unemployment figures," said the MP, MLA and former Executive Minister.

See: UK Unemployment 'Breaks 17-Year Record'

(BMcC)