There has been a modest drop in local unemployment figures, but this has been offset by a decrease in the number of people finding work - especially in the building sector.

As measured by the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the numbers out of work in NI was estimated at 6.3% for the period November 2009 to January 2010.

This represented a decrease from the rate of 6.5% recorded in the previous quarter, but was up from the rate of 5.9% recorded in the same period one year ago.

The actual number of people claiming unemployment related benefits stood at 55,700 (6.4% of the workforce) in February 2010 – an increase of 100 (0.2%) over the month.

This increase was smaller than the revised increase of 900 for the previous monthly period.

The Northern Ireland unemployment rate was below the UK average (7.8%) and was the third lowest rate among the 12 UK regions.

It also remained below the European Union (9.6%) and Republic of Ireland (13.3%) rates for December 2009.

However, seasonal adjusted estimates from the Quarterly Employment Survey showed that there were only 699,310 employee jobs filled in December 2009.

This represented an estimated net decrease of 2,890 over the quarter and a fall of 20,840 over the year.

The decrease over the quarter was driven by falls in the construction sector (-1,700) and Service sector (-1,110) jobs.

This was the sixth successive quarterly decrease in the seasonally adjusted employee jobs series. However, this was the smallest decline in employee jobs since the series peaked in June 2008 (employee jobs decreased by 4,900 over the previous quarterly period).

Northern Ireland was the only UK region to record an increase in claimant levels to February 2010, with the UK as a whole recording a decrease of 2.0%. Over the year, the Northern Ireland claimant count has increased by 32.6% (13,700). The equivalent increase in the UK was 14.0%, with the Northern Ireland annual increase ranking highest of the UK regions.

The number of working age persons that were economically inactive decreased by an estimated 2,000 over the quarter and the corresponding working age economic inactivity rate decreased to 28.0% (in November 2009 to January 2010).

However, the Northern Ireland inactivity rate (28.0%) remained considerably higher than the UK average rate (21.5%) and was the highest of the twelve UK regions.

The Department was notified of 141 confirmed redundancies which took place in February 2010. This compared to 161 in January 2010 and 474 in February 2009.

There has been a 26% increase in the number of confirmed redundancies over the last year to 28th February 2010 – 4,091 compared to 3,258 in the previous year.

(BMcC/GK)