NI unemployment figures fall

Sir Reg Empey, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, has welcomed news that unemployment, including long-term unemployment, has fallen in Northern Ireland.

The Minister was commenting on the latest set of labour market statistics which were circulated on Wednesday.

The Minister said: “The latest Labour Force Survey figures are very encouraging. The seasonally adjusted estimates for the period April – June 2001 recorded 45,000 people as unemployed, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition. This is a fall of 2,000 on last quarter’s figures.

“The seasonally adjusted ILO unemployment rate in Northern Ireland is now 5.9 per cent, which is lower than four other UK regions: the North East, Wales, London and Scotland. In addition, long-term unemployment, which currently stands at 19,000, has fallen by 3,000 over the past year.

“There is also positive news to report in relation to the claimant count, which has fallen between June to July 2001 by 500 and 1,800 over the year. There are now 39,200 claiming Jobseekers Allowance, the lowest level since September 1975. “However despite such positive news we must be conscious that there are almost 1,400 redundancies, across a number of sectors, still to be recorded in official statistics.”

Sir Reg added that these redundancies were likely to filter through over the coming months and were evidence that, although the region’s economy was improving, it was as always, subject to international and local pressures. (MB)