THE number of people in the north claiming unemployment benefit fell to 44,300 in April - a drop of 900 on the previous month.
It's the 28th month in a row the dole queue has shortened, while the overall drop in the number of claimants over the past 12 months reached almost 12,000 - the lowest out of all 12 UK regions.
But when compared to other regions, the claimant count rate here was the highest (five per cent), with Northern Ireland having had either the highest or second highest unemployment rates since April 2010.
The figures also detailed input from the Labour Force Survey which shows the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Northern Ireland for the period from January to March this year was 6.2 per cent.
This is a marginal increase from the rate recorded in the previous quarter (5.7 per cent) and above the current UK average which is running at 5.5 per cent for the same period.
But there was better news when compared outside the UK context, with the Northern Ireland unemployment rate lower than rates in the European Union (9.8 per cent) and in the Republic of Ireland (9.9 per cent).
The Northern Ireland inactivity rate (26.9 per cent) remains above the UK rate (22.1 per cent) and was the highest rate among all the UK regions.
Key reasons suggested for the high rates of 'economic inactivity' included sickness and disability (32 per cent), students (26 per cent), family/home (25 per cent) and retired (11 per cent), with 'other reasons' accounting for six per cent.
There were 141 confirmed redundancies notified in April this year, compared to 32 in March and 275 in April last year.
Ulster Bank's chief economist in Northern Ireland Richard Ramsey said the government state were "something of a mixed bag".
"The new Enterprise Minister Jonathan Bell will be pleased that the claimant count’s trend of falling unemployment has continued for a 28th consecutive month in April," he said.
"But the Labour Force Survey’s wider measure of unemployment (not restricted to those in receipt of means-tested unemployment benefits) moved in the opposite direction in the latest quarter.
"The main cause of concern remains the age-old problem of youth unemployment. Northern Ireland’s youth unemployment rate (those aged between 18-24 years of age) jumped from 17.8 per cent in the last quarter of 2014 to 21.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2015.
"Northern Ireland’s youth unemployment rate compares with a UK rate of 14.3 per cent and is more than double the rate (9.6 per cent) that prevailed when the Good Friday Agreement was signed in April 1998."
The newly-installed enterprise minister said while the Northern Ireland unemployment rate of 6.2 per cent was above that for the UK, it continued to compare "very favourably" to the February rates for the EU and the Republic of Ireland.
"Although we have seen a slight increase in the monthly unemployment rate, the annual decrease in both the unemployment rate and the number claiming unemployment related benefits portrays a more positive picture than a year ago," Mr Bell said.
