Business

Another 800 people leave the dole queue in Northern Ireland

The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in Northern Ireland in December dropped by 800 on the previous month to 32,700
The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in Northern Ireland in December dropped by 800 on the previous month to 32,700 The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in Northern Ireland in December dropped by 800 on the previous month to 32,700

THE number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits in Northern Ireland in December was down 800 on the previous month to 32,700, according to latest labour market statistics.

But while the claimant count fell, the quarterly unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 5.6 per cent (though it represents a fall over the year from 5.9 per cent).

That rate is above the UK average of 4.8 per cent but below the European Union (8.3 per cent) rate for October and Republic of Ireland (7.3 per cent) rate for November.

It also means there has been relatively little change in the north's unemployment rates since the EU referendum.

The latest figures show there were 242 confirmed redundancies in December, and there has been an overall increase of 42 per cent in the number of confirmed redundancies in the second half of the year (July to December) - 1,474 - compared to 1,041 in the equivalent period in the previous year.

Despite the fall in LFS employment and increases in the unemployment and inactivity rates over the quarter, the latest figures indicate that employment remains higher and unemployment and inactivity lower compared to the same period last year.

The figures also continue to reflect a gradual decline in the unemployment rate over recent years from 7.6 per cent in 2013, 6.6 per cent in 2014, 6.1 per cent in 2015 and 5.8 per cent in 2016 based on figures until September – November.

But despite the positive figures over the year, there is some evidence of a slowdown in growth. The unemployment register figures for 2016 indicate that claimants have been leaving the register at a much slower rate in 2016 compared to 2015.

Employee jobs figured published last month also showed that annual jobs growth had slowed. There was an increase of 500 jobs over the year to September 2016 compared to annual jobs growth of 9,440 to September 2015.

In the UK as a whole, unemployment has plunged to its lowest total for more than a decade, but the number of people in work has also fallen.

The jobless total was 1.6 million in the quarter to November, down by 52,000 on the previous three months to its lowest since early 2006.

But the numbers in work fell by 9,000 to 31.8 million, the lowest since last autumn, although the employment rate of 74.5 per cent is the joint highest level on record.

The number of people classed as economically inactive has increased by 85,000 to almost 8.9 million - the biggest quarterly rise since 2014.