Mid Ulster leading the way with fall in unemployment

According to the latest labour market statistics show that the number of claimants in the region in April was 2,371; a drop of 924 for the same period last year and a fall of 105 over the past month.

Of those out of work 1,505 were males and 856 females.

All 11 Council Areas showed a decrease over year, with the largest decreases in Mid Ulster (28.0%), Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon (27.3%) and Newry, Mourne and Down (24.8%).

The highest rates at April 2015 were in Derry and Strabane (7.1%), Belfast (5.1%) and Causeway Coast and Glens (3.7%)

The number of redundancies in the region from the start of the year stood at 62, one of the lowest in the Province.

There were 142 confirmed redundancies in the month of April. Over the latest twelve month period there were a total of 1,905 confirmed redundancies, a decrease of 10% from the previous year (2,105)

The claimant count in NI at April 2015 was 44,172 (5.0% of the workforce), a decrease of 3.7% (1,713) over the previous month.

There was a decrease of 21.2% (11,875) over the year and the rate decreased by 1.3 percentage points. Five years ago the total was 55,850 (6.1%). (The seasonally adjusted claimant count decreased by 900 from the previous month’s revised figure).

A total of 11,369 under 25’s (25.7% of all claimants) were claiming benefits in April 2015, representing a decrease of 3.7% (434 claimants)over the month and a decrease of 19.1% (2,686) over the year. Youth claimants represent 1.3% of the workforce.