Thousands Of Jobs Disappear In NI Private Sector

Almost 11,000 jobs have been lost in Northern Ireland's private sector over the past two years, a report has found.

The Economic Outlook report compiled by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) predicts that the NI economy is set to shrink further still this year, by 0.4%.

It found Northern Ireland's economy was lagging behind the UK as a whole.

PwC calculated that between March 2010 and March 2012, the heaviest amounts of job losses were suffered by the construction sector which lost 5,710 jobs and the retail sector, which lost 5,820 jobs.

Over the same period, about 500 jobs went in financial services, 230 in food processing and 100 in tourism and leisure.

Employment grew in just one sector - manufacturing, where job numbers increased by 1,390 over the two years.

Dr Esmond Birnie, PwC chief economist in Northern Ireland, told the BBC that manufacturing exports could help recovery begin next year, as long as the eurozone crisis was resolved, or at least diminished.

He said: "Over the past two years, Northern Ireland has continued to attract outside investment and reinvestment by externally-owned firms already operating here. A number of our larger manufacturing exporters have also been successful in export markets and we have even seen some modest growth in manufacturing employment."

He said local companies were as a rule not "internationally competitive" and the Northern Irish economy's reliance on public spending growth meant cuts from the UK government were being felt.

He warned: "If the eurozone crisis deepens we are facing very serious problems indeed."

(NE/GK)