Drop In Unemployment Figures

The number of people unemployed in Northern Ireland has dropped by 5.5% from June to August 2016.

According to the Labour Force Survey, the number has decreased by 0.4% over the quarter and 0.5% over the year.

Economy Minister Simon Hamilton said the unemployment rate is at the lowest it has been since September.

Minister Hamilton said:"The figures in relation to the number of claimants in receipt of unemployment related benefits for September 2016 stand at 34,900. This is another positive decrease of 400 over the month and a fall of 5,800 over the year.

"Bringing more and better jobs to Northern Ireland is my main priority."

However, Ulster Unionist spokesperson on the economy Steve Aiken MLA, warned the Executive against complacency in light of other less favourable economic indicators.

He said: "The Ulster Unionist Party welcomes the latest labour market figures which show another slight reduction in the Northern Ireland unemployment rate to 5.5%. However, some caution should be shown and the Executive and the Economy Minister should try to avoid cherry picking the data.

"Some context needs to be applied. In the spring of 2007 when the Stormont Executive was re-established the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Northern Ireland was 3.7%. That was lower than the UK average of 5.4% and the lowest of all the UK regions.

"With Northern Ireland having, proportionately, the largest public sector in the UK, we should have suffered less during the recession that occurred after 2007. That did not happen, and according to the NI Economic Reform Group we suffered the largest percentage loss of jobs of any region during the last recession. Our recovery lags behind the rest of the United Kingdom."

(CD/LM)