Unemployment level in Ulster still on the rise
The number of people out of work in Northern Ireland continues to rise despite an improvement in other parts of the UK, it was revealed yesterday.
There were an extra 500 claimants in December 2009. However this was smaller than the average monthly increase last year and the unemployment rate in the three months to November fell to 6.8 per cent down from 7.1 per cent in the previous quarter.
The number of people claiming unemployment benefits stood at 54,500 last month. The increase was larger than the previous monthly increase of 200 but smaller than the average of 1,500 last year.
Northern Ireland was one of only two UK regions to record an increase in claimant levels in December.
Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster said it was encouraging to see that the increase in the unemployment rate had slowed in recent months and that the Northern Ireland rate remained below the UK average of 7.8 per cent.
The number of people of working age that were economically inactive decreased by an estimated 14,000 over the three months to November. However it remains considerably higher than the UK average rate.
The government was notified of 343 redundancies which took place last month, compared to 451 the previous December.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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