17/10/2007

Unemployment Figure Continues To Fall

Northern Ireland’s unemployment rate is below the UK average of 5.4% and also well below the 6.8% of the 27 European Union member states.

In fact, unemployment locally has shown yet another drop on past statistics.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was put at 3.6% for the June - August period - representing a slight fall from the 4.2% of the previous quarter and the 4.3% of a year before.

On the downside, figures on people in employment for the same period showed a fall to 767,000, down 2.4% on the previous quarter and a decrease of 0.2% on the year.

The number of people claiming unemployment related benefits was down again to 23,100 - a drop of 200 on the month and 4,500 over the year.

However, the number of people of working age who are economically inactive went up from 25.8% to 27.8% over the quarter - a rate significantly above the UK average rate of 21.3%.

Economy Minister Nigel Dodds welcomed the figures and said it was encouraging to see the level of unemployment being maintained below that of the UK average for two years.

(BMcC)




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