Employment levels are up in the Dungannon Borough. During the month of February the total number of claimants in Dungannon amounted to 449, 295 of those were male and 154 female.

The total number of claimants for Cookstown was 315, 221 male and 103 female.

Omagh had a total of 654 claimants, 447 males and 207 females.

The Northern Ireland seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.2% for the period October-December 2007. This represents an increase from the rate of 3.78% recorded last quarter, but is unchanged from the same period one year ago. (4.2%)

The latest Northern Ireland rate remains below the UK average (5.2%) and is also considerably lower than the EU27 rate (6.9%) for November 2007.

Seasonally adjusted figures for the same period reveal that there were 781,000 people in employment in Northern Ireland. The new figures represents an estimated increase of 0.1 in employment levels overt he quarter and a rise of 1.2% over the year.

A total of 23,800 people were claiming unemployment benefits, revealing an increase of 200 from the previous month but down by 2,300 over the year.

Source: Tyrone Courier
Date: Wednesday, 26 March 2008