North's unemployment rate lowest ever
Northern Ireland’s unemployment rate has dropped to the lowest level on record, the British government announced today.
At the same time the number of people in employment – 754,000 -was one of the highest recorded, according the Labour Market Statistics for January to March.
Seasonally adjusted unemployment for the period was estimated at 41,000 or 5.1%.
The rate was down 0.9% on the same time last year and 0.6% below the level in the previous quarter.
“These figures reflect the lowest unemployment rate on record, “ said Ian Pearson, Minister for Enterprise Trade and Investment.
The number of people claiming benefits stood at 34,100 – 4.2% of the workforce. It represented a drop of 400 over the last month to the lowest level since 1975.
Significantly there were continuing reductions in both youth and long-term unemployment – down 8% and 27% respectively.
The minister said: “Falling unemployment plus high employment levels are encouraging signs that the Northern Ireland economy is performing robustly in the face of uncertainty.”
It was notable, he said, that there were 43,000 more people in the labour market as a whole compared with last year – indicating increasing levels of participation across the economy.
Mr Pearson said: “ A key element of current government policy is to encourage those on welfare programmes to move into the labour market and these increases in employment provide further opportunities for this to happen.”
The minister conceded that the global economic situation remained uncertain and some sectors were more likely to experience difficulties than others.
He pointed to the textile and clothing sector which has been haemorrhaging jobs – the latest announcement was the loss of almost 500 jobs at three factories being closed in the west of the province by Desmond and Sons who are a sole supplier to Marks and Spencer.
The losses follow 300 at the company earlier in the year. High costs of production has forced the firm to move production to factories it runs in Sri Lanka, Turkey and Bangladesh.
