13/06/2001

POSITIVE EMPLOYMENT FIGURES WELCOMED

SIR Reg Empey, The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, has welcomed the publishing of figures indicating record employment in the province.

Welcoming the latest figures, Sir Reg Empey said: "I am pleased to say that overall the figures indicate generally a positive picture of the Northern Ireland economy, with falling unemployment, the highest March jobs figure on record and significant growth in sales.

"There are now 46,000 people unemployed, or 6.2 per cent, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition. This is a fall of 5,000 on the total seasonally adjusted rate recorded for the same period last year and a fall of 1,000 since the last quarter, November 2000 to January 2001.

However, long-term unemployment in the province is showing an upward trend. Compared with the same period last year, there has been an increase of 1,000 in the long-term unemployment figures, bringing the total of people out of work for one year or more, to 20,000.

Sir Reg said: "Despite the number of job losses announced across Northern Ireland, the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) which measures the number of employee jobs, shows that, in March, there were 644,110 people in work. Realistically however, this must be balanced against over 2,500 redundancies which are still in the pipeline.”

There was no change in the seasonally adjusted number of claimants for Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) between April and May 2000, although over the year there was a fall of 2,500, reducing the total of JSA claimants to 40,000 which is 5.1 pre cent of the workforce. (SP)

Related Northern Ireland News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

15 September 2010
NI's Dole Queue Lengthens
The number of people claiming unemployment benefit in remains on the up despite the equivalent figures falling elsewhere in the UK. The seasonally adjusted figure shows that in August, 57,800 people were registered as unemployed - an increase of 900 on the previous month.
15 March 2017
Drop In Number Of People Claiming Unemployment Benefits
The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in Northern Ireland has dropped. The total now stands at 31,600, a fall of 300 in February, according to the latest figures. Employee jobs also increased over the quarter to December 2016 by 0.2%. Manufacturing output also rose in the last quarter of 2016, a rise of 4.
16 October 2002
Unemployment rises by 5,000 over last quarter
Unemployment in Northern Ireland is up by around 5,000 in the last quarter according to Labour Force Survey (LFS) figures released today. The total number of unemployed now stands at 47,000 for the period from June to August, or around 6.1% of the population according to International Labour Organisation (ILO) definitions. The rise marks a 0.
14 February 2007
NI unemployment rate falls slightly
The seasonally adjusted figures indicate a small drop in unemployment in Northern Ireland. The Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimated that 34,000 people (4.2%) were out of work in the period October - December 2006. The unemployment rate of 4.2% represents an estimated decrease of 0.
17 May 2017
Drop In Number Of People Claiming Unemployment Benefits
The number of people claiming unemployment benefits has dropped over the past month. According to the latest labour market statistics, 31,500 people claimed in April, 200 less than in March. The figures also showed a 5.3% unemployment rate for the past three months.