Arlene Foster
THE Enterprise Minister, Arlene Foster, welcomed last week’s encouraging jobless figures for the period April- July.
They show that the Northern Ireland unemployment rate decreased by 0.7 per cent over the quarter to 7.5%.
In Fermanagh, the ‘claimant’ figure unemployment benefit for July, although 36 up on the previous month, is just one extra claimant for the year.
The claimant figures for Northern Ireland for July decreased by 500 over the month, bringing to 2,500 the fall in the claimant figures over the last 6 months.
Mrs Foster welcomed the decrease in the North’s unemployment rate to below that of the UK (7.8%).
In Fermanagh, the rate is 5.1 per cent, when the 6.9 per cent jobless for men and the 3.2 per cent jobless for women are added together.
Mrs Foster noted that, as regards the sixth consecutive monthly decrease in unemployment benefit, this was the first time this level of sustained decrease had occurred for nearly six years.
She commented: “The labour market figures reported today reflect Northern Ireland’s strengthening economic position.
“Our strategy aims to continue to develop high value-added, quality jobs as well as encouraging investment to further demonstrate that Northern Ireland is a great place to do business.”
Central to that healthier situation, she said, was the Jobs Fund established by Invest NI in direct response to the downturn. Its aim is to help local businesses create jobs quickly.
To date, it has promoted over 5,750 jobs and created over 3,150.
“I would encourage businesses that have the ability to create jobs to explore how the Jobs Fund could support their growth plans. Additional support is also available from Invest NI for young people and those not currently in employment, education or training who wish to start a business.”
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