Decline in job vacancies at Carrick centre

Notified vacancies to Job Centres and Jobs and Benefits Offices have fallen by around 400, according to latest statistics from the Department of Employment and Learning.

In 2007-08 there were 1, 036 vacancies - 25.9 per for every 1,000 people. However by 2009/10 this had dropped to 628 - 15.7 per 1,000 residents.

As of June of this year there were 49 unfilled vacancies, of which 18 are deemed to be live. This is the fifth lowest number of unfilled vacancies across the 26 district council areas of Northern Ireland.

Province-wide, total vacancies notified in the financial year 2009/10 (54,835) were 25% lower than in 2008/09 (73,185) and 47% lower than in 2007/08 (102,789), indicating a substantial decline in notified vacancies over the last three financial years.

The DEL bulletin reports that notified vacancies declined in all districts from 2007/08 to 2009/10 with the exception of Larne. A total of 671 vacancies were notified for the neighbouring borough in 2007/08 but by 2009/10 this had climbed to 991.

The number of vacancies notified in Newtownabbey and North Down fell by 73% and 62% respectively over the 36 month period.

Vacancy details are recorded on the Department for Employment and Learning Client Management System (CMS) which is installed in the JobCentre/Jobs & Benefits offices throughout Northern Ireland. This is an IT system which is used to facilitate the interface with the Department’s customers.

Most recent labour market statistics for Carrick show there are now 1,091 claimants, which is 94 more than this time last year.