1,543 people jobless in Ballymoney and Moyle

The statistics show that Ballymoney is suffering the most from the economic downturn by registering a 13.2% rise in the number of people claiming unemployment benefit.

The figures illustrate that in July 2010 there were 960 people without a job in Ballymoney Borough, a rise of 112 on the same month in 2009. It was also revealed by the Statistics Research of the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Investment that 4.9% of the jobless people were of working age.

Of the 960 people in Ballymoney Borough, 727 are males and 233 females.

The number of people unemployed in the Ballymoney Borough also increased by 4.9%, or 45, compared to the jobless total for June 2010.

Meanwhile in the Moyle Council area they reported a jobless rise of 1% between July 2009 and 2010 - up six to 583 people.

Of these 5.5% were of working age with 423 being men and 160 females.

The number of people unemployed in the Moyle increased by 4.1%, or 23, compared to the jobless total for the previous month.

Once again both Moyle and Ballymoney are two of only three councils to have unemployment below 1,000.

* The newly released figures also revealed that five people were made redundant in the Ballymoney area in the last 12 months, with none in Moyle.