Business

Job creation in Northern Ireland is back to pre-recession levels

Job creation in Northern Ireland is back to pre-recession levels, a report from the REC has confirmed
Job creation in Northern Ireland is back to pre-recession levels, a report from the REC has confirmed Job creation in Northern Ireland is back to pre-recession levels, a report from the REC has confirmed

THE number of jobs being created and filled in Northern Ireland returned to pre-recession levels for the first time last year, with 1,600 more positions now than in 2008.

But although jobs in Northern Ireland have grown every year since 2013, the rate remains low at a yearly average of just two per cent - well below the UK average of 9.4 per cent.

Last year saw the most positive gain in the last decade, with 8,900 jobs being created, about a third of them (2,800) in Belfast.

Derry saw the next biggest increase at 600 jobs while Craigavon, Newry & Mourne, Dungannon, Newtownabbey, Castlereagh and Antrim all created around 500 jobs each last year.

The health and social work industry saw the biggest growth with 5,000 net new jobs since 2015 (most were nurses, nursing assistants, care workers), and wages in this sector (broadly £23,800 per worker) are generally on a par with the national average.

The findings are part of a new UK-wide ‘Workforce Intelligence’ study by Emsi on behalf of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), which looks at trends in local jobs markets within each local enterprise partnership area of the UK.

REC chief executive Neil Carberry said: “Although Northern Ireland was hit hard by the recession, the number of jobs has been steadily increasing every year since 2011. Admittedly the rate of growth is the slowest in the UK, but it's going in the right direction.”

Rob Slane, head of marketing at Emsi UK, added: “Northern Ireland has struggled to overcome the effects of the recession more than most regions of the UK, although the addition of nearly 9,000 new jobs last year is especially welcome.

“The real value in this data is not so much in the headline figures, but in the detail, which identifies areas where local stakeholders can make better decisions about their labour market focus.”