Decrease in local unemployment

According to the latest official government published figures for September, the local claimant count now stands at 648, compared to 660 in August.

Wards registering the most claimants for unemployment were Killycrot with 88 (86 in August); Sunnylands with 64 claimants (61 in August); and Eden and Clipperstown, both with 56 claimants (57 and 62 respectively in August).

The wards with the lowest claimant counts were Boneybefore with 13 claimants (8 in August), Knockagh with 14 claimants (12 in August) and Woodburn with 17 (19 in August)

The latest labour market indicators for Northern Ireland show a continuation in the trend of falling unemployment evident since 2012/13.

The Labour Force Survey estimate (4.7% for June-August) decreased over the quarter and the year resulting in the lowest unemployment rate since the economic downturn.

Similarly the number of people claiming unemployment related benefits decreased for the 19th month running.

The more recent seasonally adjusted number of people claiming unemployment related benefits stood at 29,200 (3.2% of the workforce) in September 2017, representing a decrease of 500 from the previous month’s revised figure.

There were 72 confirmed redundancies in September 2017.

Over the last year to September 30, 2017 there has been a 45% decrease in the number of confirmed redundancies: from 3,493 in the previous year to 1,932.