Private sector shrinks in city by 1,734 jobs

Despite all the talk about growing the private sector local employment in that section of the economy fell by 393 jobs between 2007 and 2009 and a further 1,341 between 2009 and 2011.

Londonderry SDLP MLA Pat Ramsey asked the Finance Minister Sammy Wilson how many private sector jobs had been created in the Foyle Constituency in each of the last four years.

Mr Wilson said the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) didn’t know but that the organisation did collect information on the number of jobs at a particular point in time and could provide the net change between two points in time.

He advised that in 2007 there were 27,534 private sector jobs in Foyle; 27,141 in 2009; and 25,800 in 2011.