Record jump in unemployment in Northern Ireland as coronavirus lockdown hits the economy

Statistics released today by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency showed that for April 2020, the seasonally adjusted number of people claiming unemployment benefits was 56,200 (6.1% of the workforce).

This represents an increase of 26,500 (89%) from the previous month’s revised figure, the highest monthly increase on record.

The figures only cover the first week of the lockdown and the total is likely to worsen sharply in the coming months.

Gareth Heatherington, director of the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre, told the BBC that while the increase was big, it was not “wholly suprising”.

“There are two factors which characterise this crisis: one is the scale of the impact, the second is its immediacy.

“The big test for the economy will come whenever the current government support schemes, in particular the furlough scheme, runs out.

“Then we will be reliant on the level of demand that’s in the economy and people’s willingness to go out and spend.”

Across the UK, unemployment rose by 50,000 to 1.35 million in the three months to March, as the effects of the coronavirus lockdown started to hit the economy.