Claimant count shows importance of recovery

Mrs Lockhart said: “While we have seen a slight decrease in claimants from February, we are still dealing with a significant rise in those claiming unemployment related benefits compared to this time last year. When you consider the economic tsunami that has hit, that is not unexpected.

“With the NI Executive now moving ahead with the re-opening of our economy, it would be my sincere hope that we can see this claimant count reducing further and that we get businesses back to a place where jobs are being created. Certainly we need to now look at getting hospitality and tourism back open and restore confidence with consumers.

“We need to restore confidence in our economy to enable new job creation.

“In recent days there has been some indications that some of the dates for re-opening may be brought forward and I would encourage the Executive to look at this as a matter of priority.”

“With vaccines now being offered to 35-39 year olds and significant uptake of vaccines across cohorts already offered it, we can take these steps with confidence, while also keeping the hands, face, space message very much front and centre.”

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