486 people join the dole queue

The statistics show that Ballymoney is suffering the most from the economic downturn by registered a 47.7% rise in the number of people claiming unemployment benefit.

The figures illustrate that in December 2009 there were 904 people without a job in Ballymoney Borough, a rise of 292 on the same month in 2008. 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 904 people in Ballymoney Borough, 739 are males and 165 females.

The number of people unemployed in the Ballymoney Borough rose by 3.1%, or 27, compared to the jobless total for November 2009.

Meanwhile in the Moyle Council area they reported a jobless rise of 43.1% between December 2008 and 2009 - up 194 people to 644 people.

Of these 6.3% were of working age with 499 being men and 145 females.

The number of people unemployed in the Moyle rose by 1.7%, or 11, compared to the jobless total for the previous month.

However both Moyle and Ballymoney are two of only four councils to have unemployment below 1,000.