14 June 2000
UNEMPLOYMENT FALLS OVER THE YEAR
Figures released this morning show that there were 51,000 people (7.0%) unemployed for the period February – April 2000 according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition of unemployment.
"This is a fall of 3,000 on the total and 0.3 percentage points on the rate recorded in the same period last year," Sir Reg Empey, MLA, explained this morning.
"At 7.0% the unemployment rate in Northern Ireland is lower than three other UK regions: North East (9.0%), Scotland (7.7%) and London (7.2%). In addition we have recorded a fall of some 10,000 in the number of people who have been seeking work for one year or more. This is certainly encouraging, especially when coupled with the jobs position as shown by the new figures for the March quarter.
"These show an increase of 8,340 over the year and are the highest March figures on record to date. The latest estimate of jobs stands at 621,330, with increases over the year in the services (+7,230) and construction (+2,230) sectors.
"While much of the data published this month and recent jobs announcements present a positive picture of the Northern Ireland economy, there have also been a significant number of job losses.
"Indeed, the latest jobs figures record falls both over the year (-620) and over the quarter (-1,340) in the manufacturing sector. While the effect of recently announced redundancies may take some time to feed into the statistics, we cannot afford to ignore the fact that some of Northern Ireland industry is undergoing considerable rationalisation.
"Traditional industries are facing enormous pressures and are having to adapt to new trading conditions. New industries such as dot.coms are helping to change the face of business as we know it, but there is tremendous potential for growth for all types of industry against a background of political stability and economic confidence."
Click here for this month's figures.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
There are 730,000 people in Northern Ireland who are economically active i.e. they are either in employment or unemployed. There are a further 532,000 individuals aged 16+ defined as ‘economically inactive’, 63,000 of whom want employment but do not satisfy the full International Labour Organisation (ILO) job search criteria.
ILO Definitions
The definition of unemployment used in the Labour Force Survey (LFS) is in accordance with that promulgated by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The ILO unemployed include those without a job who were able to start work in the two weeks following their LFS interview and had either looked for work in the four weeks prior to interview or were waiting to start a job they had already obtained.
The definition of ILO employed applies to anyone (aged 16 or over) who has done at least one hour’s paid work in the week prior to interview, or has a job they are temporarily away from (e.g. on holiday). Also included are people who do unpaid work in a family business and people on Government-supported employment training schemes.
The ILO measures are particularly useful for examining trends over time. However, as the estimates are not (yet) seasonally adjusted, care should be taken when considering short-term comparisons. The most appropriate comparisons to make, at present, are for a particular quarter in relation to the same quarter in previous years eg. Oct-Dec 1999 versus Oct-Dec 1998, 1997 etc. In addition, robust disaggregated estimates are not available below NI level from the quarterly survey.
CLAIMANT COUNT
Due to processing problems experienced by the Information Technology Services Group in the Department of Social Security (GB), it has only been possible for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to produce an estimate of the seasonally adjusted unemployment at UK level. Detailed figures for the UK and regions will be published on Wednesday 21 June.
Claimant Count Unemployment figures are derived from records of claimants held at Social Security Offices (SSOs). The term 'claimants' in the claimant count is used to include those who claim Jobseekers Allowance and National Insurance credits.
The figures include the severely disabled unemployed, but exclude students seeking vacation work and the temporarily stopped. The Claimant Count is a very up to date measure of those eligible to claim a specific unemployment related benefit and data are available for a range of geographical sub-regions (e.g. District Council Areas (DCA’s), Parliamentary Constituency Areas (PCA’s), Wards and Travel to Work Areas (TTWA’s).
It also provides seasonally adjusted and unadjusted data and as a result it is a useful measure for examining both short term and long term trends.
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