The unemployment rate in Northern Ireland has increased to 3.6% in the three months to December, figures show.
That was 1.2 percentage points higher than for the same period a year ago, The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) said.
In the whole of the UK the unemployment rate is at 5.1%.
Northern Ireland also had the lowest unemployment rate throughout the UK over the last quarter at 3.6%, alongside having the highest economic inactivity throughout the nation at 28%.
The number of people on the Northern Ireland claimant count fell in January.
That was the eighth consecutive month in which the figure has decreased, with 56,700 claiming benefits (6.1% of the workforce) principally for the reason of being unemployed. That is a decrease of 1.7% from the previous month’s revised figure and 12% below the recent peak in May.
During January, 190 redundancies were confirmed to The Department of Economy, taking the annual total to 5,150, the highest since 2004. In December 440 confirmed redundancies were recorded.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, or furlough scheme, remains in place until the end of April which is saving jobs from the effect of restrictions on business.
